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On the way to the Texas Theatre or Mesa, I would pass those quinceañera dresses, propped in the windows along Jefferson Boulevard like fine-spun candy. All fuchsia ruffles and teal pouf. One day I counted: no fewer than 17 such stores line a roughly 1-mile stretch in Oak Cliff, and, as I would soon learn, Hispanic families travel from as far away as Chicago and Florida to shop there. The Quinceañera Capital, they call it. One sunny Sunday afternoon, I dropped into one. I figured I would charm the employees with my funny gringa ways, and spend the afternoon twirling in front of a mirror in a dozen shades of sparkle power. But instead it was like the scene in the movie where the needle skips off the record as you walk inside. What is the white lady doing here? I chatted up the owner, thinking my plucky girl-reporter routine would win her over, but our language barrier made for rough sledding, and the more questions I lobbed at her, the more desperate she seemed for me to leav ....