Venezuela’s Maria Gabriela Wins Miss Universe 2013 – Africa Did Not Place In Top 16

Gabriela Isler,a 25-year-old Venezuelan TV host and flamenco dancer has been crowned the new Miss Universe Saturday night in Moscow.

According to the organizers, the final was watched by an audience of some 1 billion and showcased everything spectacular that the city of Moscow has to offer.

The Miss Universe pageant, in which contestants can’t be married, pregnant or older than 26, is a multi-million dollar venture owned by mogul Donald Trump.

The contest was held at Crocus City Hall, a 7,500 seat concert venue owned by Russian billionaire Aras Agalarov. Aras and his son Emin are the president and vice president of the Crocus Group. Emin, who is also a singer, performed during the Miss Universe final. According to Policymic analyst John Horne, “Trump is no stranger to such a fusion of business interests and television promotion: last year he “handpicked” Dayana Mendoza, otherwise known as Miss Universe 2008, to be one of the contestants on his NBC show Celebrity Apprentice”.

However, the Saturday final was a triumph for Gabriela, whose full name is Maria Gabriela de Jesus Isler Morales.

Narrowed down from the top 16, the top 10 comprised India, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Ecuador, Ukraine, USA, Brazil, Great Britain, Philippines and Spain.

The 16 semi finalists included Costa Rica, China, Great Britain, Indonesia, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua,Switzerland, India and Philippines. Top 5 finalists included Ecuador, Brazil, Spain, Philippines, Venezuela.

Gabriela Isler, who stands 1.81m, competed as Miss Guarico, was one of 24 finalists in her country’s national beauty pageant, Miss Venezuela 2012, on August 30, 2012 in Caracas.

She won the Miss Elegance Award and became the ninth Miss Venezuela winner from Guarico, gaining the right to represent her country in Miss Universe 2013, according to The Huffington Post.

The evening took off with a performance by Emin, during which the girls from 86 countries were introduced. Miss Universe is the oldest International beauty pageant and an eminent panel of judges, featuring American rock musician Steven Tyler, made the selection really tough. The final list is:

MISS UNIVERSE 2013 is Gabriela Isler from Venezuela

1st RUNNER UP MISS UNIVERSE 2013 Patricia Yurena Rodriguez from Spain
2nd RUNNER UP MISS UNIVERSE 2013 Constanza Baez from Ecuador
3rd RUNNER UP MISS UNIVERSE 2013 Ariella Arida from Philippines.
4th RUNNER UP MISS UNIVERSE 2013 Jakelyne Oliveira from Brazil.

In the excitement just after the announcement, the tiara fell off Isler’s head as she was being crowned by Miss Universe 2012, Olivia Culpo of the United States. Isler caught the crown laughing.

“I have a lot of emotions. I can’t describe all the things that I feel at this moment because I’m shaking,” she said.

Isler posed in a specially designed bejeweled million dollar swimsuit on Sunday.

“That swimsuit travels with an armed security guard 24/7,” said co-host Thomas Roberts, according to Yahoo. Before she got into the precious swimsuit, Gabriela did a few turns in a long-sleeve silver evening gown with beautiful details.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro congratulated Isler on Twitter, calling her title a “triumph” for Venezuela, a country that has now won three of the last six Miss Universe pageants.

In fact, Venezuela has won more major international beauty competitions than any other nation and beauty pageants rank alongside baseball in the country.

Venezuela has managed to keep its beauty queen industry flourishing, despite economic problems.

A whole industry of grooming schools, plastic surgeons and beauty salons has emerged to prepare young women for the thousands of pageants that take place each year around the world.

Since early childhood girls are trained to face a tough world of fights and undercover games of international beauty pageants as well as refined skills to represent their country politically as any beauty contest is about more than being a beauty.

Thus recently, Miss Brazil Jakelyne Oliveira, was accused of writing a Twitter post slamming Miss Philippines, Ariella Arida, for allegedly making a “racist” statement about Latinas.

Arida was embroiled in controversy when she was asked by host Karen Davila to comment on questions over her communication skills in English on ANC’s Headstart show before she left to Moscow.

“Is this our Miss Universe?” Davila mentioned a Twitter post saying. “I think she’s having a hard time speaking in English, Can you respond to that?”

Arida answered:

“When you get there, it’s (on) how your express yourself. Latinas can’t even complete a sentence… in English. I think it’s (just) the Filipino(s) who are critical. Many of the candidates have a translator. But I know I’m gonna deliver,” she boldly added.

This part of the interview infuriated quite a number of people.

Arida has since apologized for the statement on Twitter, saying, “I didn’t mean to offend anyone from my last interview. I hope you guys can understand what [I'm] trying to say”.

Oliveira, on her part, via a post on her personal Facebook page Oct. 24 clarified she does not have an account on Twitter and somebody had abused her name by posting false information to a fake account.

At the same time, Miss Universe Myanmar, Moe Set Wine, became the target of criticism in Burmese social media following the disclosure that she has competed as a Chinese beauty contestant and Andy Cohen has boycotted the pageant due to Russia’s anti-gay laws.

The tough world of pageants is exposed in an article High Heels Meets High Politics: Russia and Miss Universe 2013 by Jessica Trisko Darden, who holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from McGill University and a M.A. in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies from the University of Texas at Austin writes that international pageants are as political as they are entertaining.

“From strict security and protests to the formation of regional blocs, international pageants are as tense as a G-20 summit, with cross-cultural miss-communication, behind the scenes diplomacy, and deal making. In many ways, the Miss Universe pageant functions like any major international organization. The decision-making process is opaque, often contested, and in many ways reflect the underlying power relations and interests of the dominant countries,” she states.

According to the expert, “American values, including a Barbie-like model of beauty” dominate the show, so the girls should try really hard to represent their countries.

Evidently, recent beauty contests have become more than just a pretty-face show.