A record five women born or chosen in the United States are competing in this year’s Miss Universe, either to represent the U.S., Latinas or the Cuban and Nicaraguan exiles, which organizers and participants advocate as part of a new era of the pageant, which concludes this week in Thailand.
“I applaud it because now more than ever nationality and identity are not defined by where you were born,” Mexican host Jacqueline Bracamontes, Miss Mexico in 2000 and Miss Universe presenter, told EFE.
The phenomenon transcends the pageant and touches politics. Miami’s Lina Luaces Estefan is the second Miss Cuba elected in exile in Miami after more than four decades of absence of the island in the contest.
In 2024 the first queen outside Cuba aroused curiosity and enthusiasm from Cubans inside the island and in exile, although this time the press associated with the Castro government, which banned the contest in 1960, criticized the contestant in Cubadebate.
“Lina was not born in the largest Antillean Island. She represented the province of Santiago de Cuba in Miss Universe Cuba, a contest held for the second consecutive year in Miami, and she has never set foot in this eastern region. She is not even fluent in Spanish”, states the publication ‘Who defines what ‘being Cuba’ at Miss Universe is?
Meanwhile, the current Miss Nicaragua, Itza Castillo, born in Managua, obtained the support of the exile in Miami and the silence of the Government of Daniel Ortega, who expelled the contest during the reign as Miss Universe 2023 of Sheynnis Palacios, the last Miss Nicaragua elected in that country.
Prince Julio César, director of Miss Cuba, assured EFE that “many of these contests are held outside the countries because the governments have closed the opportunities to the girls who live there”.
“Once people get to know their ‘misses’, they end up falling in love with them, because they are disciplined, hard-working girls who are eager to represent their band to the best of their ability,” he said.
A Californian at Miss Universe
Meanwhile, Nadia Mejia, from California, was criticized in Ecuador for moving to the South American country to win the crown after losing it in the United States and for her accent when speaking Spanish.
“The true language is the language of the heart, love,” she replies when questioned on the subject.
Ecuadorian artist Danilo Carrero, who along with Bracamontes will host Friday’s final gala in Thailand (Thursday on the U.S. East Coast), said he was “proud to have Nadia represent” Ecuador.
“I feel that his roots are Ecuadorian and he has as much right as anyone to wear our flag on his chest,” he commented.
For the soccer player, “having beauty queens representing the country of their ancestors is a practice” seen “in soccer for many years, there is nothing different”.
Carlos Aydán, who defines himself as a “misseologist” and is the host of Telemundo and Peacock, which broadcast the contest in the United States, explained to EFE that the Miss Universe rules require the delegates to have the nationality or be the daughters of someone born in the country they represent.
“Those from the United States are not the only ones. Miss Turks and Caicos, Bereniece Dickenson, was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, but she can represent that country because her father is Dominican,” he said.
This year there are 119 candidates, with delegates from Cape Verde, Mayotte, Palestine and Rwanda in the competition for the first time.
And for the first time, there is a delegate for Latinos in the United States, Yamilex Hernandez, born in the Dominican Republic and chosen in the reality show ‘Miss Universe Latina’, who joins Miss Cuba, Miss Nicaragua and Audrey Ecker, Miss United States.
“Borders have officially stopped determining which flag is in your heart,” added Bracamontes, who presented ‘Miss Universe Latina,’ reported Agencia EFE.
Find out more at ‘QueOnnda.com’.
