Thera Martin
PHILADELPHIA – Most of us SCOOP U.S.A. readers have seen more than a few beauty pageants in our time. We’ve seen the Miss America Pageant. We’ve seen the Miss U.S.A. Pageant. We’ve seen the Miss Universe Pageant and the Miss World Pageant. We even witnessed the advent of the Miss Black American Pageant and so on. About eleven years ago, Yolanda Wallace got the vision to create her own pageant, which she dubbed the Miss Caribbean U.S. Pageant and ever since she’s been living her dream. She made her dream a reality and is the proud founder of the pageant which on Sunday, July 18, 2010, observed its 10th anniversary.
Over the years, people’s opinions about pageants in general, has changed. I actually think pageants used to be more popular back in the 1960’s, 1970’s and even the 1980’s. But truly things changed with the advent of the hard core women’s movement I’m not referring to the Women’s Sufferage Movement — I’m talking about women burning bras, and smoking cigarettes and divorcing their husbands if they wanted to. It was somewhere along those times that some women started saying, theses pageants are degrading to all women. Why does a woman have to parade around on a stage in a bathing suit and be judged on how good she looks in it? For others, beauty pageants are as popular today as ever, and more and more, we are seeing younger women and girls and even yes — babies entering such contests.
While we are now full swing into the twenty-first century, unfortunately I think I still see too much racism and the practice of leaving out women of color from the Diaspora. So needless to say, I was thrilled to first learn of Yolanda Wallace and her concept of presenting an annual Miss Caribbean Pageant. To Ms. Wallace’s credit, her pageant is not billed on beautiful women shaking their booties all over the stage. The Miss Caribbean U.S. Pageant is built of cultural pride, knowledge of one’s history, graciousness, poise, talent, ability to hold an intelligent conversation and yes beauty. (Remember beauty is only in the eye of the beholder).
The Miss Caribbean U.S. Pageant seeks to highlight the talent, beauty and diversity of the Caribbean Diaspora in Philadelphia. From its humble beginnings nine years ago, the pageant has grown into a much anticipated community affairs which rallies organizations, sponsors and individuals around the ideals of Caribbean progress and unity.
The pageant provides a platform for goal- oriented 21st Century Caribbean women to advance the causes of the West Indian community in Philadelphia, by acting as ambassadors of excellence in their various pursuits.
The pageant segments are designed to showcase the style, intelligence, personal beauty, individual talents and public speaking abilities of the contestants. They also do the following during the pageant: The ladies come out in cultural wear, swim wear and evening gown. This year thirteen young ladies participated in the pageant. They represented on behalf of the following island nations: Barbados, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St. Vincent, The Cayman Islands, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.
The competition was tight. All the contestants were each marvelous and splendid in their own way. (I am so glad I wasn’t a Judge). At the end of the night, the Queen was crowned and she is Veronica Lorenzo an 18 year old, fun-seeking young Latina woman with roots in Puerto Rico. Veronica loves music, making people happy and making people laugh. She has previously won the title of Miss Puerto Rico and Miss Congeniality. Veronica said, “I have been so very proud to represent Puerto Rico in the Miss Caribbean, U.S. Pageant. She enjoys sports, and video games. Her future goal is to own her own cooking business.
Congratulations to all the contestants. The way I see it, they are all winners! And a special congratulations to Miss Puerto Rico, now named and crowned Miss Caribbean U.S. Queen. The pageant was held at the beautiful New Freedom Theatre at Broad and Master Streets in North Philadelphia. It was truly a wonderful event and program. A little longer than I would have liked, but good nonetheless.
2009 Queen, Tamara Lawrence of St. Vincent crowns 2010 Queen, Veronica Lawrence of Puerto Rico at the 10th Year of the Miss Caribbean US Scholarship Pageant in Philadelphia. Miss Haiti, Brooklyn Jerome was the 2nd Runner Up (far left) and Miss Guyana was the 1st Runner Up (far right).
Photo by Solomon Williams
