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Monday, July 14, 2008

Mexico on Miss Universe: We were robbed!

By Jeremy Schwartz | Monday, July 14, 2008, 09:54 AM

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Mexico awoke in a collective funk this morning, with many lamenting the fifth place showing of Mexico’s representative, Elisa Najera, in last night’s Miss Universe pageant. Najera, a statuesque, 6-foot native of Guanajuato, had many here dreaming of Mexico’s first Miss Universe title since 1991. Instead, Venezuela took its fifth title as Dayana Mendoza took home the bragging rights. Najera had previously won the “best in swimwear” competition among the 80 contestants. And despite the third-highest evening gown score, Najera couldn’t get past fifth place.

The Mexican commentators on Galavision were fuming after the results. “This makes me so mad,” said Eduardo Videgaray immediately after the broadcast ended.

In the aftermath of the pageant, angry Mexican web surfers took their anger out in cyberspace. “Without a doubt they stole the crown from Mexico. (She) had an elegance that the rest of them lacked,” said “Juan” on the Televisa website esmas.com. “Ivy” was even madder: “She was a perfect woman!!! She had everything to be a Miss Universe - height, body, face, intelligence, bearing. It makes me think that POLITICS WAS INVOLVED IN THIS!!!!”

On the Reforma newspaper website, “Ignacio” thundered: “Of course this was fraud! Mexico answered better and had much more class than the Venezuelan.”

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But it wasn’t all bitterness in Mexico. Many here are glowing over Latin America’s overall performance: four of the five finalists were Latin American, further proof of the region’s dominance over worldwide beauty pageants (only Russia prevented a Latin American sweep). It seems clear that the Latin American ideal has become ascendant: there was nary a blonde among the top finalists.

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