How Beauty Pageants in the Philippines originated
Last December 20, 2015, the entire country watched as Miss Philippines, Pia Wurtzbach, won as Miss Universe. It was the third time that a Filipina vested the title, and it was not without flare and drama. It was a good 5 minutes that the crown settled on the head of Miss Colombia when all of a sudden, the host announced that he committed a mistake and then announcing that the real winner was Miss Philippines. With all that brouhaha done, Ms. Wurtzbach handled the situation very well, and for that, she may be the most uniquely positioned and most popular Miss Universe of all time. Now that she went home to the country a few days ago, Filipinos are not yet done praising her and giving her the accolades she deserves. And that is normal for a country that loves beauty pageants.
Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach at the Malacañan Palace on January 26, 2016, courtesy of Malacañang Photo Bureau.
Our people’s love for beauty pageants may have its roots from the Flores de Mayo, that month-long flower festival in the Philippines that centered on Marian devotion. The festival is highlighted by the Santacruzan parade, in honor of the mother of Emperor Constantine of the Roman Empire, known as Helena of Constantinople (Reyna Elena). Helena was canonized by the Catholic Church and became a saint for, according to tradition, having traveled to Jerusalem and back to acquire Christian relics for Rome. Indeed, the original religious Santacruzan parade of pageant queens was solemn and it included the reenactment of Helena’s journey with its main plot centered on Mary and a host of Biblical women characters. Through the centuries of Spanish colonial rule, the pageant became more decorative and festive, transforming into an annual beauty pageant parade highlighting the beautiful women from the locality. We can only surmise that the Santacruzan began not long after the Spaniards have successfully implemented reducciones, or the relocation of the locals from the mountains to the plaza, where cabecera churches were built and the indoctrination to the Catholic dogma was done.
Come February 1908, and it was the year of the first Manila Carnival. Under the American colonial administration, Manila transformed into a bustling colonial metropolis. With all its problems such as public housing, public transport and parks, the Americans put up a grand facade to mask these problems. An effective façade was organized–an annual two-week carnival. The Manila Carnival, set in the old Wallace Field in Luneta, was meant to highlight Philippine-American friendship, given that the previous year (1907), Filipinos were given the right to elect Filipino leaders in the newly-formed Philippine Assembly (the lower house of the Philippine Legislature under the American colonial period). The carnival had different “exotic” themes per year, with bazaars from different regions, and a large space where visitors danced in revelry from night till dawn in the music of orchestras. People from all social classes would prepare for their dresses weeks prior the affair. The goers would be given ballot papers to elect the carnival queen. However, a vote was corresponded by cash donation hereby restricting the pageant contestants to the wealthy.
Courtesy of Lipag Kalabaw, “Paghahanap sa Reina” 18 January 1908.
The first Manila Carnival Queen pageant was a controversy on its own. The original carnival organizer, a certain Captain Longhorne, asked the Philippine Assembly for P50,000 to showcase Igorot tribesmen and to set up an amusement park. Then American Governor-General James Smith was aghast at such a concept knowing that there would be a backlash of Filipino sentiments against the move, describing it as something that would drive “the civilized Filipinos perfectly wild.” Hence, the American government re-conceptualized the carnival, lowered the cash subsidy to P15,000 and allotted another P15,000 to support a Beauty Pageant competition to promote Philippine-American friendship. Two Carnival Queens were chosen by election: the Queen of the Occident, an American, and the Queen of the Orient, a Filipina. It was here, however, that many Filipinos felt the pageant as degrading for a Filipina. To illustrate, William Cameron Forbes, an American administrator and future Governor-General, approached Mariano Limjap of the Partido Federalista to make her daughter join the contest. Limjap only replied that “he didn’t want to be talked about.” Hence, the Lipag Kalabaw editorial cartoon of January 18, 1908 attacking the beauty pageant as “prostitution of the Filipina.” Pura Villanueva, nevertheless, was elected as the Queen of the Orient, while the sister of Customs Collector G.R. Colton was elected as the Queen of the Occident. In Manila Carnival’s first grand opening in 1908, there was a maritime parade with bands playing, where two flotillas of the two queens meet from end to end of the baywalk to open the carnival. Hence, the first Filipina carnival queen and Miss Philippines was Pura Villanueva.
Pura Villanueva, 1908 as Carnival Queen. Courtesy of Manila Carnivals Blogspot.
The stigma against beauty pageants and against Villanueva soon diminished as this was proven wrong. Pura Villanueva, the future wife of Batangueño journalist Teodoro M. Kalaw, soon became a pioneering leader of the women’s suffrage movement. During the Commonwealth Period, Pura’s social activism through journalism united influential women in the Philippines. This led to a special plebiscite on April 30,1937, which gave all Filipina women the right to vote.
Other carnival queens played major roles in Philippine history. Trinidad Roura de Leon, the future wife and First Lady of President Manuel Roxas, became Filipina carnival queen in 1920, with her American counterpart, Mary Crocker, daughter of the Governor-General Francis Burton Harrison. The daughter of Teodoro and Pura Kalaw, Maria Kalaw, was also elected as carnival queen in 1931. Because of the daughter’s passion for rhetoric, inheriting her father’s nationalist stance, Maria Kalaw soon became a senator in 1967, becoming the second woman senator in Philippine history.
Trinidad Roura de Leon as Carnival Queen, 1920, courtesy of Pinoy Kollektor.
With all these beauty queens towering behind her, including the Miss Universe Filipinas like Gloria Diaz (1969), and Margarita Moran (1973), we hope that Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach would exude this great history that highlights the strength and inner beauty of the Filipino woman.
1. Photo of Queen Socorro I (Luisa Marasigan) as Queen of the Orient with her court, in a photoshoot in 1926 for the 1927 Manila Carnival. Displayed at the Calvo Museum at Escolta St., Manila.
2. Photos of Manila Carnival Queens as displayed in the Calvo Museum.
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