The Beauty Pageant Edition

Carmina and Patch celebrate Chelsea Manalo’s recent coronation as Miss Universe Philippines and wish her well in representing the Philippines at the Miss Universe pageant in September. They discuss Chelsea’s unconventional win and delved into when and how Filipinos’ beauty standards and obsession with pageantry began. Listen in as they chat about the first and subsequent Filipino “Queens” and their achievements outside the realm of pageants. They also talk about Nelia Sancho & Maita Gomez and how these women defied the traditional “beauty queen” expectations of their day. Finally, though they were never invited to participate in pageants in their childhood, learn why all hope may not be lost for Carmina and Patch to win a crown.  

Learn more: Manila Carnival Queens, 20 Rare Photos of the Manila Carnival That You've Probably Never Seen Before, First Queens of the Philippines, First Black Filipino woman crowned as Miss Universe Philippines, Chelsea Manalo's inspiring journey to the Miss Universe Philippines crown, The Philippines' beauty pageant obsession: Who benefits?, Beauty boot camps: Why PH is pageant powerhouse, Filipino beauty returns after winning Mrs. Grandma Universe 2017, 16th-19th Century Concept of Beauty in the Philippines: A Historical and Cultural Approach, Nelia Sancho & American Transnational College Activism, New York Times Obituary: Nelia Sancho, Beauty Queen Turned Defiant Rights Activist, Dies at 71 and Gomez, Margarita “Maita” Favis.

To support FilTrip, go to the Patreon page here and PayPal page here.

Visit https://filtrip.buzzsprout.com. Drop a note at thefiltrip@gmail.com.

Thanks to FilTrip's sponsor SOLEPACK. Visit thesolepack.com for more details.

See https://www.buzzsprout.com/privacy for Privacy Policy.

Transcript

Carmina

Welcome to FilTrip , a podcast where we explore everything fun, weird, and in between about the Philippines.

Patch

Hi Carmina. Hi Patch. Today we're going to talk about beauty pageants and the significance it has in Philippine culture.

Carmina

Right. So I think we should first tell our listeners why we decided to talk about this topic, because unless I'm wrong, in all the years we've known each other <laugh>, neither one of us has ever really been interested in following the pageant circuit, unless you're secretly following it and I didn't know about it. <laugh>, I mean, you know, we celebrate whenever a Filipino wins.

Patch

Yes.

Carmina

Right?

Patch

Yes, of course.

Carmina

But it's not like we follow it and we track the candidate. Like I know that many, even in my own family, make it a sport.

Patch

Every time our candidate places in this international pageants. Then of course, and I, I do follow what's going on and I get curious as to who won, who is this person?

Carmina

I think what caught my attention this year was the win of Chelsea Manalo, who was crowned Miss Universe Philippines recently and will be representing the Philippines and the Miss Universe pageant on September 28th, 2024. And that's because she really does not represent the conventional standards of beauty in the Philippines. She has an African American father and a Filipino mother. So she is the first black Filipino to win this title. And in fact, when she won a lot of African American, some of them prominent were highlighting Chelsea's win,

Patch

Yeah. So it's very exciting. 'cause like what you said, there's a different standard of beauty previously and she would be the first who broke through those standards.

Carmina

So we're gonna watch <laugh> September 28th.

Patch

Yes. We are.

Carmina

She's trying to be the fifth Miss Universe from the Philippines. So our winners were Gloria Diaz in 1969, Margie Moran in 1973, Pia Wurtzbach in 2015. Catriona Gray was the last Filipino to win the title in 2018. And we have been sending a representative to the Miss Universe pageant since 1952 when it was first launched. Our very first representative was Teresita Sanchez. Do you know the stats Patch? I found this fascinating <laugh>.

Patch

No, tell me.

Carmina

So I was wondering how we fare in terms of wins, uh, amongst the other countries. So for Miss Universe, the United States has the most, they have nine title holders, then that's followed by Venezuela with seven, then Puerto Rico with five wins. And then we come after Puerto Rico because we have the four title holders in Miss Philippines. So we have one of the greatest number of wins than countries that have a much larger population and size. And then, in the other three, 'cause you know, there's the Big four pageants.

Patch

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

Carmina

Miss Universe, of course the queen of all pageants.

Patch

So to speak.

Carmina

And then you have Miss World, we have one title holder there. Then Miss International, we have six. And then for Miss Earth we have four. And we always have somebody either winning or placing in those pageants.

Patch

One of the most fascinating things I came across was we actually have schools that train potential candidates from the way they walk.

Carmine

Yep.

Patch

The way they talk, the way they dress, the way they answer questions. And there's a lot of time and money that go into training for these pageants. And in fact, our trainers are so good at their job that international beauty pageant contestants actually train under our Filipino pageant trainers.

Carmina

Let's talk about, how did this all begin?

Patch 

So the tradition started during the Manila Carnival.

Carmina

Hold up <laugh>.

Patch

Oh, ooh. What <laugh>.

Carmina

Well, that's when it became institutionalized.

Patch

Okay. Right. Okay.

Carmina

However, if we wanna talk about the Spanish colonial period. Do you remember the Santa Cruzan festival?

Patch

Yes, of course.

Carmina

It commemorates the discovery of the Holy Cross by Queen Helena who went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and found the true cross, which was the cross on which Jesus was crucified. So Queen Helena's son was Constantine, and Constantine became the first Christian Roman emperor. He was credited for turning Christianity from being in the minority to elevating it as the national religion or the official religion in Rome. During the Santa Cruzan Festival, there's a procession that's composed by Reina or Queens in English, the Sagalas or the Muses. Then there's flower girls, angels and escorts. And the Reinas represent biblical virtues. Reina Fey, which is Queen of Faith, Reina Esperanza, queen of Hope, Reina Caridad, queen of charity, and the queen of them all. <laugh>. I always wondered why, but it's the Reina Elena, right? Because it is-

Patch

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

Carmina

-a representation of Saint Helena herself. So it's supposed to be religious, but somewhere along the way it turned <laugh>, it turned into a beauty pageant. I mean, there's no voting or judging going on. They're actually preselected.

Patch

Yeah. There's a lot of politics involved, local politics involved around that. Right?

Carmina

I don't know about you, but I was never asked to be part of this ritual. <laugh>

Patch

I was never. My sister was.

Carmina

Oh, really?

Patch

Yeah. Yeah. It's cool.

Carmina 

Many of my cousins were too. And I just remember around that time of the year them being like, it was a big deal.

Patch 

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

Carmina

You know, we've always thought that the standards of beauty were colonial. I actually found a very interesting paper, it's called "The 16th to 19th Century Concept of beauty in the Philippines - A Historical and Cultural Approach." So for anybody who is so inclined to read this paper, I'm just gonna mention the highlights. This researcher collated writings from Spanish and Filipino historians. One thing that stood out to me was a mention of the "binukot." It's a person, it's a woman. And this person is usually the daughter of a powerful ruler. This daughter is considered a prized possession because they were to be married off to the most influential rulers of the time. And so they would seclude this person from the rest of society, such that the sun very rarely touch their skin. And so they were very, very fair. This is unique to Central Panay. Uh, bukot's translation is to entrap, the way they were described was, you know, very long hair, really impeccable hygiene, good posture. And their beauty was also kind of described as including intelligence and a discernment of the political goings on in the kingdom.

Patch

During that time, there was already colorism?

Carmina

Yeah. And that is the term this researcher used too, colorism.

Patch

Hmm.

Carmina

I did just want to mention that because we've always thought of this standard of beauty, at least the skin. Right? Right. Currently, the, the features that we find attractive from the Philippines are fair skin, high nose, height, all of those things that we attribute to our European and American colonizers. Okay. Now that we've had that trip down memory lane, you were starting to talk about the Manila Carnival.

Patch

The roots of institutionalized <laugh>, like you said, institutionalized beauty pageants can be traced to the Manila Carnival, which began in 1908 as a celebration of US Philippine relations. And, uh, the Manila Carnival was held annually at the Wallace Field in Luneta Park, which was a very significant event during the American colonial period. It featured a selection of Carnival Queens who would serve as the face of the event of the year, while it promotes various industries and the meeting of several prominent government officials.

Carmina

So you did mention the stated objective was to celebrate the harmonious relationship between America and the Philippines.

Patch

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

Carmina

But there was also kind of a subliminal messaging to the whole thing. And it had to do with showing how much better off the Philippines was in being an American colony by highlighting our industries, commerce and agriculture. So it was a kind of propaganda, if we wanna be blunt about it, because it was super important for the American colonial government to convince the American citizens back home that this was the right thing to do. Because if we recall, there was just such public outrage in America about its imperial ambition. So this was the American government's marketing of why they needed to keep expending money and resources on the Philippines. And the way they did it was by showcasing everything we had to offer in this carnival, which I guess includes our women. Because as you said, the main highlight of this event was the crowning of the Carnival Queen.

Patch

The contest drew many participants from across the country. Some provinces held their own carnivals to select the representative to this Manila Carnival. And it already involved contestants who relied not only on beauty, but also their upbringing, their education, and more importantly their social status. Some came from very prominent families. For example, Anita Noble Agoncillo, the first Miss Philippines in 1926 had connections to Felipe Agoncillo and Marcello Agoncillo who were prominent families during that time.

Carmina

You mentioned that Anita was the first Miss Philippines. There was kind of an evolution in the carnival 'cause originally all of the title holders were called Carnival Queen. And then in 1926 they transitioned into Miss Philippines. It was because the pageant portion of the carnival overshadowed everything else. <laugh>.

Patch

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

Carmina 

And it eventually evolved into a national beauty contest, the Miss Philippines pageant. So the last Carnival Queen, Socorro Hanson, was crowned on the same year that the Miss Philippines pageant was launched. And that's how Anita Noble became the first Miss Philippines.

Patch

It's also worth mentioning who the first Queen was. It was "Pura" Garcia Villanueva.

Carmina

Yeah, Pura was an ilustrado's daughter, apparently married to a Spanish born mother. So her father, his name was Emilio Villanueva, and her mother was Emilia Garcia. Wow. What a love story. Emelio and Emilia. What, what a fated love affair that is <laugh>.

Patch

One of the things that happened, I guess with these beauty queens, is they get entangled with politics and all of that, right. So she later with Teodoro Kalaw, a Batangas Assemblyman.

Carmina

Yeah so Pura, apart from her excellent pedigree, also had other achievements. She founded a feminist organization called Asociación Feminista Ilongga, and that organization advanced the first suffrage bill that reached the Philippine assembly in 1907. And it was the first known suffragette movement in the Philippines. And she also wrote books.

Patch

You know, a lot of the Carnival Queens are educated. Besides coming from prominent families, another author was Paz Jurado Marquez, who became the Philippine Journal of Education's editor, as well as publishing very popular short story Dead Stars. Another one was Trinidad Rura De Leon. She became the first lady. Her husband is Manuel Roxas. So they really picked very prominent as well as educated women. The tradition of beauty queens was not just based on physical beauty, but they had other attributes.

Carmina

So true. This also kind of started the legacy of generational beauty queens, right? In 1931, the first second generation Queen was crowned Maria Villanueva Kalaw, who is the daughter of Pura. And Maria, in the legacy of her mother, was also very smart and accomplished. She actually became a senator. She was the only woman senator in 1961.

Patch

During this time there was already a sense of nationalism involved with the, the whole phenomenon. It was already very popular among Filipinos. And they took pride in the fact that this beauty queen represented something ideal or the ideal Filipino. But what was also interesting is part of that American propaganda was they had very much an influence on who wins, right?

Carmina

Mm-Hmm <affirmative>.

Patch

There were actually a couple of Americans who won the Manila Carnival Queen, uh, one of whom was Marjorie Colton. And she reigned at the same time as Pura Villanueva . SPura Villanueva was Queen of the Orient, and Marjorie Colton was the Queen of the Occident.

Carmina

Are you kidding me? <laugh>. What? <laugh>. I don't know how that went over with people, but, uh, it's not, uh, rubbing me the right way right now. <laugh>. There's always controversy around, you know, these pageants that probably is also kind of a institutionalized tradition. There was a controversy also in the 1926 contest. Did you know about this?

Patch

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

Carmina

The Miss Philippines contest was neck-and-neck when it was first launched. And it took Manuel Quezon to help break the tie.

Patch 

Aha.

Carmina

It was between Anita Noble from Batangas and Carmen Fargas from Zamboanga. We should also mention that the way the Miss Philippines pageant ranking was done was they would find a winner from each of the main island groups. So there would be a Miss Luzon, Miss Visayas, Miss Mindanao, and the ultimate winner would be crown Miss Philippines. So to break the tie between Anita Noble and Carmen Fargas, Quezon invited them to lunch at the Manila Hotel and he asked them to come in the simple attire of the day, which was the baro and saya with no makeup. And he based his decision on that lunch. Or at least that's what he says.

Patch

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

Carmina

And Anita won it, and because there were already winners for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, why the heck not?

Patch

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

Carmina 

They created another title, Miss Pearl of the Orient Seas.

Patch

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

Carmina

And that's what they gave to Carmen.

Patch

If you think about it, they were really one of the first celebrities, right. They were very popular. They were written about when pictures were available. They were the first widely distributed images-

Carmina

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>,

Patch

-uh, across the country, there's a status and power tied to that. If you were coming from an influential family, and I guess you're a politician or someone who wants that publicity, it would be very important to you to be tied to one of the first major celebrities at that time.

Carmina

Okay. Back to the present. So they continue to be popular and industries rise around it.

Patch

Yeah.

Carmina

Because pageants are a way to earn. And in a country like ours where that's really tough sometimes, it's not really just the pageant winners that benefit. Some pageants offer cash prizes or even scholarships. And Miss Universe is also a way for the winners to advocate for their causes.

Patch

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

Carmina

There's job opportunities because of fashion designers, makeup artists, and even local businesses participating because so many people want to watch it. You also mentioned the beauty camps?

Patch

Now, how does one, um, coming from the rural areas, for example, get to represent the country? One of the, um, the means would be to participate in these beauty boot camps in which they do training, posture, answering questions, et cetera. And even the way they walk, there is a term for it - the pasarella.

Carmina

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

Patch

Catriona Gray, I think she's one of the most recent one who has the very distinct walk.

Carmina

Oh, the Slow-mo Twirl.

Patch

Yeah.

Carmina

And it is fascinating when you watch it <laugh>.

Patch

Yes. Very fascinating. I am not saying that she went to training to learn that walk. I don't know. But apparently in these beauty camps, they train them to walk and also develop a unique way of walking so that they would be distinctive during the competition.

Carmina 

I like Chelsea Manalos' walk. I wonder where she learned that it was really exuding confidence, I felt.

Patch

Well, I wanted to talk about two ladies that came across as someone, uh, very remarkable. Have you heard about Maita Gomez?

Carmina

Yeah.

Patch

She won the Miss Philippines World title in 1967. She also came from a very prominent family in Pangasinan. Uh, they had a huge hacienda, but she joined the New People's Army or the NPA in the 1970s to fight against the Marcos dictatorship.

Carmina

Right.

Patch

Oh, she founded the Metro Manila chapter of Gabriela, the women's movement. There's another one, Nelia Sancho, who was also an activist.

Carmina

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

New Speaker

Yeah. So she was also a beauty queen. She was Queen of the Pacific Title holder in 1971. However, her life took a turn, Carmina, from this whole glamorous life-

New Speaker

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

Patch

-when she witnessed the brutal killing of two professors during the Marcos era during Martial Law.

Carmina

I think they were both students from the University of the Philippines, if I'm not mistaken.

Patch

That's right. As an activist, Sancho co-founded the Women's Rights Organization, Gabriela, in 1984. So even after the fall of the Marcos, uh, Sancho continued her advocacy work. And she always, you know, focused her work on various social issues and even, um, wrote about the sexual slavery during World War II, you know, the comfort women. So she got involved in that advocacy as well.

Carmina

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

Patch

So she is one of those prominent beauty queens who devoted her life not only to that glamorous side, but also to her social activism.

Carmina

I really hope that our future representatives use their platform, especially when they win, to really advocate for these causes and not just use them as a part of the contest, but to really continue.

Patch

Mm-Hmm.

Carmina

Wow Patch. That was a really interesting deep dive into the beauty pageant history of the Philippines. And of course, my memories about these things, very scant because <laugh>, as we talked about, like I never got asked to participate in any of the local activities. However, there is hope.

Patch

<laugh>.

Carmina 

Did you know that there is a Gandang Lola beauty contest?

Patch

No.

Carmina

Gandang Lola translated means beautiful grandma. And that is because there is a Grandma Universe pageant <laugh>.

Patch

Oh my gosh.

Carmina

And, uh, hello. A Filipino won in 2017.

Patch

<laugh>.

Carmina

Her name is Agnes Jakosalem from Cebu. And this is really blowing my mind. In 2017, she was 51 when she won <laugh>. So, hello Patch, I'm looking at you. <laugh>.

Patch

We, we still have hope <laugh>.

Carmina

We better get our asses to that beauty camp.

Patch

I'm starting my, uh, training now. I'm gonna develop my own distinct walk.

Carmina

And with that, that's our episode. We hope you join us on our next trip, o siya, siya.

Patch

Ingat. Thanks for listening to FilTrip with Carmina and Patch. Support FilTrip through Patreon or PayPal. And follow us on Instagram and Twitter. Subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever all podcasts are downloaded.

Carmina

Thanks to FIltrip's sponsor SolePack, a functional shoe accessory bag. Visit thesolepack.com for more details.

Patch

Email us at the thefiltrip@gmail.com.