Miss U.S. Latina

On the first weekend of August, I was honored to be invited to Miss U.S. Latina. No, not only to see the pageant but also to be the judge and help to choose the Miss Teen U.S. Latina & Miss U.S. Latina. I still can’t put it into the words how cool the experience was. I am still excited! 🤩

Miss U.S. Latina pageant final rounds were held right here in Miami. It took place in a nice hotel in South Miami, in Hilton Miami Dadeland. Basically, there were Latina ladies from different states who came to Miami to win the title of Miss Teen U.S. Latina & Miss U.S. Latina.

There were 16 girls competing for the Miss Teen U.S. Latina & 22 ladies competing for the Miss U.S. Latina title.

Judge #4

It was my first time being a judge in the pageant. I have been on the judge’s panel for different fashion shows before, but this experience right now was different. So there I was, judge #4! 🙌🏻

* Memory lane for a moment *: Because of covid, my last fashion show, where I was on the jury, was in 2019!!! I just can’t believe where the time flies?! 😣 But this was the Latvian Art Academy student’s Fashion Show. Be my guest & check out how cool stuff they did! 😍😍😍 *

The first day : 6th of August

So the judging started on the 6th of August. It was the first evening when we saw the girls. Teen delegates were showing off their evening gowns, and Miss delegates were showing off their evening gowns and swimwear.

The first day was totally based on their appearance. The delegates didn’t say anything or do anything, they just showed their clothing. So the first points given were based on the looks, the appearance, and the way they were representing themselves on the stage.

As this was almost like a fashion show, then it was easy for me to evaluate this round, because I knew exactly what to observe & notice.

The second day : 7th of the August

So this day started early. Especially for me, as I drove from the Miami Beach area to Kendall for almost an hour. The morning started with the small preparations by the organizers of Miss U.S. Latina. After that, we had a long day full of interviews with the pageants.

We were making up our own questions for the pageants and we evaluated them based on the answers. Although there was no right or wrong answer, we still had to gauge them based on what they said. Well, some of them already ‘flushed themselves’ when they put a little white lie on the resume. There were couple of girls who said that they speak Spanish, but when we asked them questions in Spanish ´they were unable to answer them. So how can you represent Latinas if you are not even speaking Spanish? 🤔

The interviewing definitely changed everything, as the Miss had to be the ‘whole package’. Meaning that she should be beautiful, confident, have the right appearance and she also needed to be smart, humble & intelligent. So after that round, it was pretty much clear who were the strong candidates.

The final day : 8th of the August

🥁 And the final day 🥁

The final day was definitely most intriguing, as we needed to make our final choices, of who will be Miss U.S. Latina and Miss Teen U.S Latina. ✨

On the last day (like on the first day), there was also an audience, photographers & videographers. And the girls were also showing their costumes / traditional dresses on the stage. And the audience from online could vote for their favorites.

Miss Photogenic was Isabella Christensen, from Minnesota & Miss Teen Photogenic was Naomy Mata from Texas. Best costume from Teens had Camily López from Arizona and Angie Leon from Missouri. Best costume of Miss – Natalie Gonzalez from Mexico U.S and Francis Castro from Wisconsin.

Hosts of the night were Nancy Gomez & Jennifer Daniela Vargas.

The winner of the Miss Teen U.S. Latina became Jessania Blanco from Florida and Miss U.S. Latina Roxette Solis from Washington! 🎉 From the Teens my most fave won. Congrats to the winners! 🥰🙌🏻

I got to meet so many amazing souls & had just a blast! 🥰 It was definitely a great opportunity to be a part of that! There was also an Facebook Live of the event, which is still available, and the judges were also introduced in there – I am intorduced from 29:45.🙌🏻

(And yes, I did feel like a tall person !😎)

Triinu in Miami ∞