By Sue-Ann Wayow
A VENEZUALAN woman from Diego Martin West has been chosen to represent Trinidad and Tobago in the Miss Grand International beauty pageant competition in Vietnam.
Mileidy Materano was crowned Miss Grand Trinidad and Tobago 2023 during a pageant held at the Banquet and Conference Centre at MovieTowne in Port of Spain on Sunday.
Born in Venezuela and living in Trinidad and Tobago for the past six years, Materano, entrepreneur and fashion model was announced as the winner over all other local women.
While some offered congratulations, many more were displeased that she was selected.
Taking to social media to voice their concerns, they questioned the judging criteria as well as the applicant’s criteria for the competition.
One said, “How disrespectful in a country with so much beautiful women they choose a non-national to represent us.”
Another said, “This is disrespectful and it reeks of colourism. Fair skin and Straight hair.”
Following auditions to select the finalists on July 23 at Studio 28 located in Port of Spain, 15 finalists were selected for the competition.
All candidates were later revealed in the Grand Reveal Ceremony held on August 6 at the Luna Restaurant West Mall, Port of Spain.
Coming in second place was Rebekah Hislop from St Joseph and Maria Enika Ramnath from Caroni Central. One pulled out the competition at last minute citing issues with the organisers.
The pageant organiser is Stolen Productions Ltd (SPL Pageants), a company founded in 2021 and this is the first time, a woman will be representing Trinidad and Tobago in the competition that also has a men’s edition.
On Monday, an official of the agency told AZP News: “There is absolutely nothing in any pageant that says you have to be naturally born of the country.”
The person also did not want to disclose Materano’s legal status.
While speaking to AZP News via phone, the call dropped and several attempts to re-contact the agency so far have been unsuccessful.
For some other countries participating in the pageant such as Australia and Botswana, citizenship of that country is a requirement.
Miss Grand International also known as Miss Grand is a beauty pageant franchise based in Thailand with focus on humanitarian issues encouraging reigning titleholders to raise awareness of world issues which includes involvement in several charitable events.
This year, the competition takes place in Vietnam on October 25.
Other local pageant stakeholders also expressed similar concerns that a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago was not selected to represent the country especially someone who was not fluent in English, Trinidad and Tobago’s main language.
During the question and answer segment, a translator was used for Materano.
She is not fit to represent Trinidad and tobago,there are pics and video of her on adult porn sites and nothing about her is natural,she knows nothing of our culture and history
She’s not a Trinidadian and shouldn’t be representing T+T in this beauty pageant. Choosing her to do so clearly displays the “ colonial mentality “ of the pageant organizers. Our islands are full of naturally beautiful women who were born who needs no interpretation to represent us !