Winning ain’t easy
JC
You probably all know this since you were all clinging to the edges of your seats waiting to see who would win Miss Universe, right? Haha. Yea, me too. :| Well, it was Zuleyka Rivera Mendoza, Miss Puerto Rico! I think that she weighed an eighth of a pound less than anyone else, and that really tipped the scales in her favor (pun intended! nudge nudge…[sigh] i just can’t help myself). 
ANYway…instead of airing my extreme bitterness about the culture of pageants, I will just do what I came here to do. And that is to let y’all know that Miss Puerto Rico won. And she made mention of being a mix of races. Ha. How transparent and obvious of me. Thanks to Anitra for the heads-up…
In her pageant biography, Rivera explained what made her different from the other contestants. “Physically, I have been told by modeling agencies and friends that I represent the consummate Latino look,” she said. “Everything in my face expresses our heritage, our music and the wonderful mixes of races that we are.”
Ok, great. But I just have to comment on the pageant and the state of beauty in our world (I guess I do have to rant a bit after all). MISS UNIVERSE FAINTED RIGHT AFTER WINNING. Blame it on her heavy dress made of metal chains, or the bright lights. Sure, avoid the real problem. Hello? These ladies were toothpick thin except in places where they had implants. I don’t know if it was just me, but they seemed especially emaciated this year. One was skinnier and — sorry — dumber than the next. What the hell are we valuing? Intelligence isn’t really important, but looks are. Ok. Maybe I am getting worked up (and come on, this isn’t even a new issue). Someone please tell me not to care because who really buys these pageants anyway?! Someone… tell me… anybody? 
All I know is that I watched as a little girl…actually, I am a bad example because they obviously didn’t impact me negatively. Anyway, I would watch as a little girl with my mom….and I think the only reason I don’t buy into these standards now is because my mom would laugh at all of it. We watched and scoffed. But what if we watched and my mom was in awe of how thin and made up they were? Would I then aim to be that? Would I sometimes have a hankering to wear an elaborate headpiece and walk around like a robot with a plastered smile on my face? Would I be really eager to answer questions like “What is the one defining moment of your life?” and “What is your wish for the world?”
Eh, the whole thing sucks. Don’t believe the hype! All that said, does anyone want to see my impression of a newly crowned Miss Universe? I have the watery-eye-with-violently-shaking-hand-in-front-of-open-mouth look DOWN! No, seriously. I do.
Ann wrote:
“I have the watery-eye-with-violently-shaking-hand-in-front-of-open-mouth look DOWN!”
Hey JC! No fair! That’s my look!
I’ve had many years to perfect it!
I guess I can now expect to lose out to you when the next Ms Universe pageant comes up.
Better get back to practicing my “Oh-I’m-so-happy-for-you-even-though-I-should-have-won-instead-of-you-so-watch-me-nonchalantly-ever-so-carefully-stick-my-foot-out-(without being too obvious)-and trip-you-since-that-crown-should-have-been-mine-routine going.
Beauty! Oy vey! It’s a hard-knocks life out there!
Posted 27 Jul 2006 at 10:33 am ¶
gatamala wrote:
I have serious problems with her comments about her “look”.
I live in the US and have lived in Mexico & DR. There is really not a “consummate” Latin look. I have seen Dominicans of Chinese descent and Mexicans of Lebanese extraction.
Yes most Latins are mixed (as are most people in the W. Hemisphere); however rampant racism precludes any emphasis of African features or anyone descended from primarily W. African people. This racism is quite ironc light of the desire to always claim the music (of dark-skinned people) as OURS, but not the people….
As a Panamanian classmate with Black skin said, “I’m tired of the typical Latina being depicted as a cross between Jessica Rabbit and Salma Hayek”
Posted 27 Jul 2006 at 10:55 am ¶
jazmin wrote:
““Physically, I have been told by modeling agencies and friends that I represent the consummate Latino look,” she said. “Everything in my face expresses our heritage, our music and the wonderful mixes of races that we are.”
there is not such thing as a “Latino look”. its a known fact that latino people can be from diffrent races. though by watching tv and reading magazines people would assume that the majority of them are very fair in complexion or VERY light light brown with curly or straight hair very european features. very few times are afro latinos (black hispanics) shown. unless you count zoe saldana or christina millian, but how many leads in movies do you see them playing as latino’s? i mean how many main roals out there for afro latino’s..very few. you know why? because america hell and even shows in latin america are stuck on ignorant perception that if your latino you have to look like this and if not…then no role for you.
Posted 27 Jul 2006 at 11:11 am ¶
dcase wrote:
There is one place where that Latino look statement does not hold water and that is in Major League Baseball. The majority of the latin players ( who generally come from the Caribbean and Venezuela) would be considered phenotypically black by US standards. It just suggests the level of cognitive dissonance that pervades the Americas when it comes to ethnic identity. For example, I have a good friend who is Puerto Rican (from New York) who has spent plenty of time on the island, but unconciously, he has a hard time acknowledging that black people can be Puerto Ricans too.
Posted 27 Jul 2006 at 12:58 pm ¶
gatamala wrote:
@ jazmin
the shows in LAm are undoubtedly more racist than ours
Posted 27 Jul 2006 at 2:18 pm ¶
brad wrote:
Dcase,
I agree that the MLB has a large number of African-descended Latino players. But those players, for the most part, don’t seem to be recognized as black by the Media. If Alex Rodriguez were Alex Washington, then there would be no question. However, Rodriguez and Chicago Sox Coach Ozzie Guillen are considered Latino. (It is kinda weird that you’re friend has problems acknowledging that Puerto Ricans can be black since he’s been to the island and that some of the most powerful New York Puerto Ricans are black.
I just found this in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_immigration_to_Puerto_Rico
There’s a list of famous Puerto Ricans of African descent.
Rarely, do you see in movies Latinos in lead roles portrayed as having very African or Native American features. Most of the Latinos are white or white Mestizos like Andy Garcia, Rita Moreno, Salma Hayek instead of George Lopez, Gina Torres (Firefly/Serenity) or Adam Rodriguez (CSI: Miami).
Again, Angelina Jolie will be playing Daniel Pearl’s brown-skinned Afro-Cuban/Dutch wife. From a Latino cultural perspective, I guess having a white woman play a mixed woman with African features might be considered a complement (as freaky as that might sound) given the desire in most Latin countries for people to be perceived as white. Colonialism and racism did a wonderful thing to people’s minds.
In the new Miami Vice film that starts on Friday, 28 July, Gong Li plays a Chinese Cuban. A miracle must have happened for someone to think of that kind of casting.
Posted 27 Jul 2006 at 2:23 pm ¶
raul wrote:
Puerto Rican descents in New York (and surrounding states) are more mixed with African descent than those born and raised in Puerto Rico. When those Puerto Ricans migrated to the north in the late 40’s and 50’s they ended up living in african american neighboorhoods and many are half Puerto Rican half Jamaican or half Puerto Rican and half Dominican or half Puerto Rican half African american. That is why americans who are used to seeing darker puerto ricans in northern US find amussing that Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico are Spanish european (mediterranean)looking and Taino indian looking or a mix between these two called Mulato byvery far . Zuleyka Rivera is taino indian looking as well as Alex Rodriguez, Zuleyka’s mom is spanish european looking and her dad is very taino indian looking. Puerto Ricans like the rest of the caribbean nations is an ethnic group that is composed mostly and /or mix by Spanish (mediterranean) descents, Taino Indian descents and to a lesser degree African descents. (In the Dominican Republic is the opposite: greater African descent, Spanish descent and Caribe Indian descent , in that order and in Cuba the Spanish and African descent are greater while the Indian is to a much lesser degree ,the mix of race is smaller compared to Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic.)
Posted 27 Jul 2006 at 4:52 pm ¶
Raquel wrote:
In case you do not know the history of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans, let me give you a short brief on it. The native or original Puerto Rican was an indian, a Taino indian. The Spaniards conquered the island. The Spaniards brought with them Africans to help build forts, etc. Thus the mixing of the races. All Puerto Ricans are mixed, we have European, Indian and African in us. No matter how black or how white you look, we have these races in our blood and we are proud of it. We don’t want to be white and we don’t want to be black, if anything we would claim our original Taino herritage. So don’t make us black and don’t make us white. And, by the way this young lady does exemplefy the this combination of the three races.
Posted 30 Jul 2006 at 11:23 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:
Raul: have you seen Rosie Perez’s documentary re: Puerto Rico? There is a HUGE variety of native-born Puerto Ricans in her film, some of which are of obvious African-American descent. Maybe the whole “native-born lighter, US-mainland-born darker” is true in your experience, but I’d hesitate to say that that speaks for the WHOLE ISLAND.
And on a personal note, as I’ve said before, my MIL was considered “too dark” for my FIL - both are PR natives. While my FIL essentially looks like a short tanned European man, my MIL really is a combination - there may be slight African features to her face, which coupled with her dark beigey skin tone may have seemed “too dark” for his family. African descent doesn’t have to mean kinked hair or v. dark skin.
Posted 31 Jul 2006 at 12:40 am ¶
chuka wrote:
i guess only the real latinos can tell, much in the same way that i (born and bred in Kenya) cant tell the difference between various american accents(i’d mention them, but i just dont get the difference so i wont bother). if someone from another continent were to visit Kenya, they’d see many, many balck people, and wouldnt know to tell the tribal differences. kenyans, however, can do this by just looking at the face. “(s)he looks like a Kikuyu/luo/luhya/taita/kamba.”
so maybe miss universe does really possess the face she talked about.
Posted 31 Jul 2006 at 7:09 am ¶
Lyonside wrote:
Brad:
I was rereading comments and… Gina Torres? White-looking?
THIS Gina Torres? http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0868659/
I think that list may need a weeeee bit revision…
Posted 31 Jul 2006 at 9:02 pm ¶
chicarica wrote:
miss puerto rico is clearly of strong taino descent, but she also has visible african features and, like most puerto ricans, she also likely has quite a bit of spanish ancestry. i think what she meant by saying she has a “consummate” latin look is that you can see all parts of her ancestry in her face: the native, white and black (one of which 99% of latinos share). she doesn’t look white or taino or african. she looks a mixture of all three and that is what i like to see representing latinos.
Posted 16 Aug 2006 at 1:52 am ¶