Miss Universe smiles down on the world

Miss Universe smiles down on the world

By Bruce Emond

JAKARTA (JP): There is no fidgeting with the tiara, no stolen
look to the chaperone across the room, no plaintive groan of "No,
not again" when That Question is asked.

Miss Universe Denise M. Quinones keeps smiling, as she has
through lunch on Monday at the office of Mustika Ratu in East
Jakarta, which is the franchise-holder for the pageant in
Indonesia, and the inevitable photo-session with guests and their
children that followed.

She does not miss a beat when asked the inevitable: What does
she say to those who criticize the pageant, what some term a meat
market for living Barbies playing dress up?

"I respect everybody's opinions about pageants," she says. "I
have to answer with my own experience, which has been great. I
have never felt denigrated as a woman in any aspect. On the
contrary, I think it is a celebration of who we are and gives us
opportunities to excel in the areas that we want to ...

"And after this, my life, if I take it correctly, you know, I
can do whatever I want. It's an incredible experience."

It's a by-the-book answer in the beauty pageant world, which
is licking its wounds from an image-beating in developed
countries in the last few years. In most of Europe, beauty
pageants are seen, at their most benign, as an anomaly, a quaint
throwback to another time, if it ever existed, where women were
delicate things to be seen, admired, but not much heard.

The major exception is the United States, which finds itself
alone in the developed world in trundling out the stars as TV
stations pay big bucks for broadcasting rights to international
pageants.

Yet, like a feisty minority taking back the language and
arguments of the oppressor, beauty pageants are dealing with the
pesky sexism question head-on. A couple of years ago, the
what-do-you-say-to-your-critics query was the final round
question in the pageant, with eventual winner Lara Dutta giving
an answer very similar to that of her heir today.

While beauty pageants may have lost their luster in some parts
of the world, they remain big business in Latin America and Asia,
where beauty "academies" take pretty women and nip and tuck them
to an out-of-this-world perfection (Venezuela, in particular, is
notorious for its mass-production line of beauty contestants).

"It's about the interest," Quinones, one of four Puerto Ricans
to win Miss Universe says, a bit cryptically, about the Latin
love affair with pageants. "And the preparation -- they prepare
very, very, very well. They put a lot of effort into it, and that
shows."

Prickly questions and all, Quinones comes across as someone
who is not easily fazed, even by a little controversy -- she took
a very non-PC stand by wearing a fighting cock outfit for her
optional dress in Miss Universe.

Of course, she has every reason to smile since she was crowned
in May on her home soil. She is tall, voluptuous (no Calista bony
bod here) and undeniably attractive in a girl-next-door kind of
way, if the girl next door looked like Ricky Martin's younger
sister. And, yes, for practical purposes, she has striking teeth,
perfect, neat rows which are a testament to the influence of
American orthodontics.

But, as the pageant people are quick to tell us, how she looks
is only part of the winning equation of brains and beauty and
"inner beauty" that led to her being chosen for the title, worth
about US$250,000.

Family

Born in Puerto Rico of a father from the island and a mother
from California (she says one of her grandparents was a Mexican
Indian), Quinones grew up in several areas of the island. She has
a 17-year-old brother who is in high school, "and a very large
family with lots of aunts and uncles".

Quinones studied dance and loves to sing and says she entered
the Miss Puerto Rico contest because she "wanted to try it". As
luck, beauty and gray matter would have it, she won.

Winning that title last November and then Miss Universe has
meant putting off her third year at the University of Puerto Rico
in San Juan, majoring in communications, for her trip around the
world as Miss Universe. She does not have a boyfriend "because I
have so many things on my mind, so many goals and priorities that
it's not my first interest".

Although Quinones acknowledges the great pride she felt
winning the title in her homeland, she sidesteps a question about
Puerto Rico and its sometimes thorny relationship with the
mainland.

"It was an incredible feeling which fills me with honor and
pride, because not only am I Miss Universe but now I have the
opportunity to put Puerto Rico on the map and to be part of the
amazing group of Puerto Ricans who have done things so far. If
it's about certain issues or the press ask me (about them), I can
talk about my people ..."

She is proud to be a Latina when there is what she calls a
"Latin boom" going on, with the success of Martin and Jennifer
Lopez, both from Puerto Rico, and her mixed heritage.

"It's incredible. I think the more mixed up we are, the
better," she laughs. "We add up to a better character,
personality and we are more open to many different ideas and
peoples and cultures. It makes you a better human being. It's
incredible."

She visited Portugal as the first stop on her world tour and
then Indonesia ("it's so big, so diverse, I like it very much").
Yes, it can be tiring, she says, what with meeting the media, the
tours of coffee factories and exhibitions, the gala dinners, but
she paces herself.

"I rest whenever I can ... take things day by day. I like
being with people, spending time with them, talking with them.
It's my job -- I knew the consequences when I entered the
pageant."

It's also a means to an end and, like she said, her future
will be hers for the taking. Quinones is looking at a career in
entertainment as a crossover artist, able to draw on her mixed
ethnic background to become a star in both the Latin
entertainment world and Hollywood.

"I want to sing, dance, have my own records, definitely,"
Quinones says.

She searches for the word to describe the kind of entertainer
she wants to be. She knows it's not eclectic, but multi-
something.

"Multi-pathetic? It sounds something like that," she offers.

Multifaceted, perhaps? "Yes, that's it," Quinones says,
beaming.

Malapropisms aside, Quinones knows where she is going. While
few Miss Universes have gone on to international careers, usually
content to make it big as film stars (India, in particular) or
entertainers or politicians in their home countries, Quinones may
just be different. She has the looks, poise and determination
that belies the easy-going charm to go the distance as an
entertainer.

For now, Denise M. Quinones is on top of the world. And, to
use her most often uttered word, that's incredible.