This should quell some fears about how closed to capitalist and American initiatives the new Bolivian pluri-national government could be:
During his campaign, Evo Morales promised that he would reach out to the lowland upper and middle classes and lobby to have the 2010 Miss Universe Pageant held in Santa Cruz. The lowland city has the stereotype of being preoccupied with beauty queens and contests.
Evo Morales, Culture Minister Zulma Yugar and local pageant organizer, Gloria Limpias, met with representatives from the Miss Universe Pageant on February 1. Representatives will be in the country for a month, visiting landmarks and evaluating whether or not Santa Cruz is an appropriate venue. They plan to submit a full report to pageant owner, Donald Trump.
According to Minister Yugar, this is “the best opportunity we have… to [show the world] our national patrimony…” Yugar highlighted the potentially beneficial publicity, since the contest has millions of viewers around the world. She added that holding the pageant in Santa Cruz would be “the best gift for [the city’s] bicentennial.”
The Trump commission will announce whether Santa Cruz is officially in the running in about two weeks. Croatia and Australia are also being considered as possible hosts.
In the 2004 Miss Universe Pageant, Bolivia infamously sparked national conflict with her remarks. When asked “What is one of the biggest misconceptions about your country?” Miss Bolivia, Gabriela Oviedo from Santa Cruz, answered:
“Um… unfortunately, people that don’t know Bolivia very much think that we are all just Indian people from the west side of the country, it’s La Paz all the image that we reflect, is that poor people and very short people and Indian people… I’m from the other side of the country, the east side and it’s not cold, it’s very hot and we are tall and we are white people and we know English so all that misconception that Bolivia is only and ‘Andinan’ country, it’s wrong, Bolivia has a lot to offer and that’s my job as an ambassador of my country to let people know much diversity we have.” (http://www.bolivia.com/noticias/autonoticias/DetalleNoticia20579.asp.)
Whether or not you are a pageant fan, this newer initiative is a definite improvement.
