Children's time: Children's parties

Childhood, the right to live in a family, to be fed, cared for and dressed, endowed with somewhere to live and parents who protect them, tell them things, laugh with them and make them laugh, who guarantee and preserve what is in their dreams and freedom.

This is what the Frenchman Jacques Attali said about the rights of children. He would add to this phrase "and who celebrate them at the important moments of their childhood".

These photographs illustrate how children's parties were celebrated in Puebla, and how the dining room, crockery and delicacies were arranged for the party.

The guests were friends, cousins and neighbors, plus grandparents and uncles.

They played on the patio for a while and then went into the dining room to revel in what there was: fruit cocktail, jellies, toasted sandwiches, sandwiches, tamales, milk alone, atole (drink) or chocolate.

Before the cake was brought out, Las Mañanitas (traditional birthday song) was sung and people cheered. Hats for girls and boys were essential. At that time, taking a gift to the party was not a requirement.

The table was covered with a white tablecloth and the food was served: fruit cocktail in a cup, sliced jelly on plates or an individual jelly in a cup or glass, tamales on a plate, sweet bread and cake on plates, chocolate or atole (drink) on a hot-plate and cup- and milk in a glass. The respective cutlery and napkin were also put out.

For First Communion breakfast, special attention was paid to the table and the menu that would be served.

White flowers, whether gladioli, lilies or daisies, were placed in the center of the table with bunches of grapes, vine leaves or golden ears of wheat.

For moms, Josefina Velázquez de León's publications concerning children's and First Communion parties were important, as, in addition to recipes, she gave recommendations on how to fix the table and what to serve.

At the end of the 1930s, Velázquez opened his Velázquez de León Cooking Academy in Mexico City, where he established the "Children's snack classes."

In 1943, Puebla had a branch of the Academy of Cooking, with Irene O. de Anaya as its director. In addition, he created his own publisher with books such as: Good-value parties for children, Cakes and jellies for children and Tamales and Atoles (Drinks).

Velázquez established in his more than 30 years of work the styles for the children's parties that are still seen on the tables today.