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.