At nine o’clock at night on September 26, Marianela Ancheta was crowned Miss Universe Cuba in a ceremony at the Milander Center, in the heart of Hialeah, the city of Miami where almost 200,000 Cuban emigrants live. At some point, even Ancheta herself thought that she was not going to take the crown: at first she looked confident, then nervous and confused. She did not win the prize for best hair, nor for best face, nor for best skin, nor for the one with the most personality, nor for the most elegant or friendly, categories that the jury assigned to some of her companions. In the live broadcast of the Mega TV channel, which focused on his face often, his frozen laughter and fear clouded his lost gaze among an anxious and rowdy audience. She monopolized, however, the status of the most photogenic, and held on to take the title with her bright red dress and pointy heels, which added up to a height of 1.78 meters, and with which she went out to conquer the crown, the sky and the universe.
When she had not yet been selected as the favorite among the 24 contestants, Ancheta stood in the center of the stage and grabbed a question from the mailbox: “How would you approach the topic of mental health if you were Miss Universe?” Neither the presenters, nor the directors, nor the organizers of the pageant will say Miss Universe but Miss Universe and will subtly highlight that they operate in both languages and that a Miss Universe It is, above all, about “beauty and confidence”.
Ancheta responded as much as her nerves allowed, in the middle of an audience that shouted her name and that of Alina Robert, the second favorite among followers of the beauty contest. With a raspy voice, the model said that if she won she would do workshops for young people and talk about the importance of an issue “that affects globally.” “They have to know that seeking help is okay and that they have to be empathetic with all people,” he managed to say.
There was not a single question that referred to politics in Cuba, something that many have criticized. The contest returns after 57 years since Castroism eliminated the beauty pageant, just as it erased any capitalist legacy that still remained in the 1960s. “The contest has nothing to do with politicians or governments. It is an entertaining show for the family and to support the most disadvantaged,” said Prince Julio César, the Venezuelan designer and fashion advisor who acquired the franchise and who also owns Miss Earth Venezuela, Miss Supranational Venezuela and Universal Woman Venezuela. Osmel Sousa, the “czar of beauty,” the Cuban who directed Miss Venezuela for several decades and today is the director of Miss Universe, reminded Prince more than once during the ceremony that, although it was a Cuban who was At the head of Miss Venezuela, today it is a Venezuelan who is in charge of Cuba. “My commitment is to give back to Cuba what he gave to my country,” Prince told Sousa in front of everyone.
More than one was waiting for the show at the end of September: the managers, the spectators, the media and those who wonder what the contest is for. But above all the girls, who have worked hard, have attended the gym with discipline, have followed the correct diet, have made an effort to share the most folkloric postcards of Cuba, the most traditional songs, and to reaffirm their Cubanness, an essential element in a space where it is a requirement to be Cuban, or of Cuban roots, something that they have had to prove with their passports or nationality documents. The majority arrived in Miami by raft through the Straits of Florida, or undertook a journey through El Darién or were awarded an immigrant visa. According to the organizers of the event, in addition to speaking Spanish well and being beautiful, the misses must have a philanthropic vocation, which some have rushed to develop on social networks, where they have advocated for the LGBTIQ+ community, and have played dominoes in restaurants run by Cuban entrepreneurs. from Miami, and have even attended galas of the Heartbeat Foundation, an entity focused on preventing abortion.
If they were not in the United States, the contestants would not have been able to participate in a contest from which Cuba has been excluded until today. In 1957, Cuba reached its best position in the Miss Universe, with María Rosa Gamio Fernández in third place on the beauty podium. Flora Lauten, the renowned Cuban theater director, was the last Miss Cuba on the island in 1960, the same year that Fidel Castro called the event “frivolous.” As with so many things, the exile took charge and until 1967 celebrated “Miss Free Cuba.”
“Resuming the contest was an opening opportunity given by the Miss Universe Organization, and after presenting the proposal to them, they accepted that we would have the possibility of doing the Miss Universe Cuba, only in Miami,” says Prince. “It is the most symbolic thing we can imagine, since Miami is where the largest number of Cubans are in exile, and from this community they seek to have the spaces that they cannot from their country.”
In Cuba, many followed the contest from YouTube or were aware through social networks. No official media has taken notice that the competition was taking place in Miami that will change the life of the selected candidate, who will compete alongside women from some 120 countries on November 16 in Mexico City for the diamond crown and sapphires that Sheynnis Palacios, the current queen, will give at the 73rd edition of Miss Universe. Some contestants have been different after the contest: the public eye has turned on them, their lives began to be filled with trips and job proposals, they ended up being show hosts, program hosts, big businesswomen, soap opera actresses, and even targets of criticism, as happened to Alicia Machado, the former Venezuelan Miss Universe whom Donald Trump did not hesitate to call “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping” in the nineties. Ancheta can be another from today, for better or worse.
“It’s totally changed now,” Prince says. “Now the world knows her and she is beginning to be a reference for all women in Cuba. She already has a consolidated career as a model, now in her role as Miss Universe Cuba she can show her ability to help those most in need, and tell them that she is not only a pretty face, she is a great fighting woman, and that she wants to make an impact positive in society, especially for Cubans.” He missologist Jesús Hernández believes that depending on “how you use the platform it could change your life.” “She could have support from many brands, organizations, be a voice for those who do not have a voice. “Fight through her title for the freedom of Cuba, which is something very political that sometimes involves avoiding beauty contests, but in the end she has a voice and a power that not everyone has at this moment.” .
The jury, made up of 17 members, including the singer Eduardo Antonio, The Divo of Placetaspopular among the Cuban community, the former Nuestra Belleza Latina Greidys Gil, the announcer Enrique Santos, or the presenter and philanthropist Sissi Fleitas, wanted to know what the candidates would be like if they were leaders, what proposals they would have to solve social inequality, what changes in the Cuban educational system would be made to form more critical and committed citizens, and their opinions about diversity or inclusion.
The contestants were asked questions, consciously serious in an attempt to reduce frivolity to a contest that for years has been criticized, stoned, questioned but that is still afloat, moving millions of dollars every year, mobilizing the big brands, the designers. , to advertisers, to missologists and a jury that chooses who is prettiest, the tallest, the thinnest, the one with perfect measurements, the one who laughs in one way, the one who looks another, and, how could it be missing, the one who is more intelligent, the one who has the power of oratory. The jury wants to say that they are not only beautiful, good mothers and excellent wives, but also people who think.
Marianela is 31 years old, an age at which one could not compete before but which the Miss Universe organization – owned by JKN Global Group and Legacy Holding – now accepts in the spirit of inclusion. It also accepts women who are already disabled mothers, who were automatically left out of a competition that has sometimes, according to Hernández, lent itself to “corruption” and uses the “issue of inclusion to propagandize.” Not infrequently, “it plays with the girls’ dreams when it is known firsthand who bought the crown,” he adds.
Ancheta, who spent this entire Friday granting interviews for television networks, explained that she comes “from nowhere”, from Ranchuelos, a town in the center of the Island, and that she crossed the border with her mother a few years ago. years. She has asked the women who see her to “never give up,” that she comes “from a complicated situation” and is now enjoying her crown.
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