A6
ARTS AND CULTURE
East Oregonian
Tuesday, September 6, 2022
Yasser Marte/East Oregonian
A turquoise quinceanera gown stands in the window display Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022, at Adamari’s Boutique in Hermiston.
Quinceanera dresses can range in price from $199 to $1,400.
Yasser Marte/East Oregonian
Hermiston boutique specializes
in dresses for cultural milestone
By MARCO
GRAMACHO
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — Espe-
ranza Ochoa, 42, moved to
Hermiston in 1986 from the
city of Ruiz, in the state of
Nayarit, in Mexico. She made
many friends and started to
be invited to be godmother
for her friend’s children and
saw the parents having to go
to nearby cities to buy clothes
for the special occasion.
She also saw them have
to do the same for their girls’
quinceanera, which is a cele-
bration of a Hispanic girl’s
15th birthday, marking her
transition from childhood to
maturity.
“The creation of Adamari’s
Boutique 12 years ago was a
dream come true and a gift
from God,” said the owner of
the store at 176 W. Hermiston
Ave.
“Our community was
losing time and money with
gas to go to stores outside
Hermiston,” she remembered.
“I said to myself that one day I
would have a store where my
community could find all they
needed without losing money
and time and finding high
quality products,” she said.
The boutique’s lead prod-
uct is the quinceanera dress.
Prices can start at $199 and go
to $1,400.
“The girls complet-
ing 15 years old want the
most expensive dresses, but
the parents don’t,” she said
jokingly.
The store offers clothes
and accessories from baptism
until marriage.
“Our community has a
very strong culture as Lati-
nos and based on our religious
beliefs,” she reflected.
The store carries brands
from Mexico and the United
States.
“With the pandemic there
was a boom in sales, espe-
cially quinceanera dresses,”
Ochoa said. “I don’t know
the reason why. Maybe
people were afraid of what
the pandemic would bring in
the future and won’t have a
chance to celebrate important
dates.”
The market of quincean-
era is booming in the United
States. According to U.S.
Census data, the Hispanic
population of the United
States as of July 1, 2019,
was 60.6 million, making
people of Hispanic origin the
nation’s largest ethnic or racial
minority. Hispanics consti-
tuted 18.5% of the nation’s
total population.
According to Census data,
about 80,000 people live in
Umatilla County, and Hispan-
ics or Latinos make up 28.6%
of the population.
In the U.S., there are more
than 400,000 quinceaneras
every year, according to
a report in Forbes Maga-
zine. Globally, quinceane-
ras are a $49 billion industry
and, combined with other
traditional celebrations —
weddings, baptisms, tres
anos (celebration of a child
who turns 3 years old), and
The carousel horse “Dandy Boy” stands on display Friday,
Sept. 2, 2022, at the Pendleton Art & Frames store in Pend-
leton. Charles “Chuck” Kaparich of Missoula, Montana,
made the piece for Cher Mulhearn, who recently moved to
Pendleton and is selling it due to lack of space in her home.
Wood horse in
Pendleton revives
golden memories
of carousels
By MARCO
GRAMACHO
East Oregonian
Yasser Marte/East Oregonian
Adamari’s Botique owner Esperanza Ochoa, 42, shows off her latest dresses Wednesday,
Aug. 31, 2022, in Hermiston. “The creation of Adamari’s Boutique 12 years ago was a dream
come true and a gift from God,” she said.
Yasser Marte/East Oregonian
Quinceanera dresses are on display Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022, at Adamari’s Boutique in
Hermiston.
Yasser Marte/East Oregonian
A array of high-to-low heels sit on the shelves for sale Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022, at Adam-
ari’s Boutique in Hermiston. The business specializes in clothing for quinceaneras.
others — create a $400
billion market.
Quinceaneras cost $21,781
and have 212 guests on aver-
age, per the Forbes’ report.
Godparents help pay for the
religious items used in the
ceremony, such as the Bible
and cross.
They accompany the
person (or persons) being
celebrated during the church
ceremony and throughout the
reception. They also may take
on the responsibility of orga-
nizing the gifts.
However, because of the
high costs of these events,
other friends and family
contribute, helping pay for
the venue, bar, party favors
and wedding-like dress at
a quinceanera, as well as
weddings and baptisms.
Quinceaneras remain
strongest in Mexico and
among Mexican Americans
in the United States. However,
different Spanish-speaking
countries in the America also
widely celebrate the event in
different ways. In Brazil, a
Portuguese-speaking country,
a similar celebration is called
festa de debutantes, baile de
debutantes or festa de quinze
anos. In the French Caribbean
and French Guiana, it is called
fete des quinze ans.
PENDLETON — Cher
Mulhearn and her husband
recently moved to Pendle-
ton and brought with them
a piece of Americana — a
carousel horse.
But not just any carou-
sel horse.
Charles “Chuck”
Kaparich of Missoula,
Montana, made Mulhearn’s
horse. Kaparich was a cabi-
net-maker who learned to
carve animals for carou-
sels, and in the early 1990s
became involved in down-
town Missoula’s revitaliza-
tion project and started A
Carousel for Missoula.
“Missoula’s carousel
was the first hand-carved
carousel in the United States
since the Great Depres-
sion,” Mulhearn said. “His
success in Missoula spurred
a nationwide carousel
revival.”
Kaparich died in 2021 at
the age of 73.
Mulhearn learned of
carousels at a young age.
“When I was a little girl
my father used to take me to
a carousel in Leavenworth,
Kansas, where I was born,”
she said.
Many years later she
had the chance to meet
Kaparich when she moved
to Missoula, and designed
a carousel horse especially
for her.
“It took a year and a half
to be done, and it was worth
the wait,” she said. “I named
him ‘Dandy Boy’ because
it took me so many years
since my childhood to have
him.”
But after moving to
Pendleton in August, she
decided to cosign her carou-
sel horse because there is
no more space for it in the
house. The horse is for sale
and on display at Pendleton
Art & Frame, 36 S.W. Court
Ave., Pendleton.
Kapa r ich ca r ved
Mulhearn’s horse in the
Dentzel style.
“Gustav Dentzel was a
German immigrant work-
ing in Germantown, Penn-
sylvania, during the late
1800s,” Mulhearn said.
“His carving style featured
more muscular horses.”
She said the company
was the first to put a menag-
erie of animals — cats,
deer, etc. — on American
carousels.
According to the book
“A Pictorial History of the
Carousel,” written by Fred-
erick Fried, historian and
carousel conservationist,
the United States once had
5,000 hand-carved carou-
sels. Today there are less
than 160 due to their sell-
ing off of the ponies, parts
and scrap metal.
“Kaparich was looking
to buy a horse carousel for
his wife and after consult-
ing with Frederick Fried he
decided to make an entire
carousel,” Mulhearn said.
That was Kaparich’s first
inspiration for the project
A Carousel for Missoula,
which is at Caras Park on
the banks of Clark Fork
River.
According to informa-
tion in the website of the
project, Kaparich, who had
spent many childhood hours
on the carousel at Columbia
Gardens in Butte, Montana,
had already carved four
carousel ponies and had
purchased an antique frame
in thousands of pieces when
he started the project for
Missoula.
Kaparich taught others
to carve, mechanics began
the process of restoring
16,066 pieces of the antique
frame and motor, paint-
ers were recruited, and
Missoula began working
together to create A Carou-
sel for Missoula.
By the time the carousel
opened in 1995, volunteers
gave more than 100,000
hours for the construction
of 38 permanent ponies,
14 gargoyles, the largest
band organ in continuous
use in the United States
and more. According to
carouselformissoula.com,
Missoula school children
collected more than one
million pennies — $10,000
— to adopt four ponies.
“I hope the tradition of
horse carousels remains,”
Mulhearn said, “to keep
creating great memories
such as the ones I have.”