Ecuador, the country that dreams of the Miss Universe crown: this is what Ecuadorian experts think about the preparation of candidates

Select them earlier, focus on competition strategy, more openness to professionals who want to join staff official and generational shifts. There are several suggestions mentioned by a group of professionals associated with beauty pageants in Ecuador after the recent edition of the Miss Universe pageant, held in El Salvador, where the Nicaraguan Sheynnis Palacios made history by becoming the first woman from her country to win the title.

During the weeks before the final gala evening, our compatriot, born in Guayaquil Delary Stoffers, held a flawless intervention that captured the attention of the world’s media and gave hope to the followers of these competitions that she will win a place among the semi-finalists and thus come closer to the title of Miss Universe. But after learning about the group of the first 20 semi-finalists, the excitement about the competition stopped.

According to consulted experts who agree that the Ecuadorian women who competed in the Miss Universe pageant had interesting and diverse profiles, these are some of the recommendations for the preparation and selection of Stoffers’ successor for the next edition.

“The country dreams of the crown, and last night was a demonstration that a small country like ours, as well as Nicaragua, take the Miss Universe crown. It gives us the idea and the hope that we can make it happen, but it also gives us the idea that we are doing things wrong, because in our country there are girls who want to be there, there are very talented professionals in the field of beauty; But, at the end of the day, for me, the fact that the leader of that project, which would be getting the Miss Universe crown, is not ideal and does not have the necessary vision to achieve that goal,” he notes. Jose Hidalgo, coach from misses.

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For Hidalgo, changes are necessary to achieve results. “I feel like we have a Miss Ecuador who had every chance to be in the top 20 (semi-finalists), because she had a very good preliminary, but we also have to know everything behind it. Maybe I would have had a better result if I had a better wardrobe, a better promotion Marketing on social networks, which is also Marketing international, not just national. They are girls who travel through international channels, to the United States; Ecuador did it too, but not at the ideal moment. You have to create more than one strategy to get to that point,” he adds.

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“The profiles we sent (as a country) were always different, and that’s true because the competition calls for diversity; Different girls always win, no matter what country it is, they are always completely different girls. I believe that Constanza (Báez) marked the turning point, but Constanza did it alone. She consulted with people who had a little more vision and invested, and that is important. That investment should be made not only by the candidate, but also by the organization, the sponsoring brands,” says Hidalgo, with more than fifteen years of experience in this field.

Focus and anticipation

Hidalgo says that choosing them a short distance from their trip to Miss Universe is one of the weaknesses of our delegates. “Something that we do wrong and that I always insist on is that we continue to choose Miss Ecuador several months in advance. This year he was elected in June; The competition started in November. This is an average of four months of preparation, compared to Venezuela, which elects its queen a year earlier (…). We don’t have the necessary strategy to win; It will just be fulfilled,” he emphasizes.

Miguel Panus, Deputy Director of CNB Ecuador, believes that in the selection of future representatives, they should focus on what the international competition is looking for in each edition. “The new owner said they were looking for a transformation manager; This is an important factor to consider when choosing. I don’t think it’s impossible to reach the top or win the crown; We saw this yesterday with the classification of Pakistan, who were a country that participated for the first time and made history for their nation by qualifying; and with the winner, from Nicaragua, a small country like ours, and she managed to make history with the first Miss Universe crown for her country,” he emphasizes.

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“We must have an analysis of what the international organization is looking for, in any of the tenders where our candidates participate (…). The key is to have a very clear focus in order to start from that moment and work with the team to prepare our representatives for the future,” suggests Panus.

Panus, who through CNB Ecuador organizes the pageants of Ecuadorian women who participate in Miss World, Miss Supranational and Miss Grand International, claims that knowledge of international pageants was key to success in them.

“From 2019, we started going to competitions for which we have a license. From these experiences, a close life backstage, Talking to directors from other countries, titular queens and owners of each pageant, it was a restart of the queen preparation system, and we also consulted with professionals, like Alexander González. It is also important that the chosen queen be a devoted and disciplined woman,” he says.

“What an honor it is to walk the streets of your country and feel peace, order and well-being,” says the newly elected Vice President of Ecuador Verónica Abad in X Nayib Bukele, during her visit to El Salvador.

There is no variety in the semi-finals

William Herrera, model agent and producer, states that “so many countries compete, there are not even 20 that have won; they always remain the same. Now, with the issue of inclusion, those candidates should have been given a chance and it ended up discriminating against others who, having potential, were not considered among the top, such as the case of Ecuador’s representative, Delary. Stoffers, Dominican Republic or Mexico.”

“It depends on the policy established by each competition, which has varied in recent years, and unfortunately it has become a constant to choose the same countries every year,” he adds.

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William Herrera, director of the modeling agency

Herrera adds that, as an external associate of the Miss Ecuador organization, the representative of that country fulfilled her participation correctly. “You don’t need a crown and sash to be miss; That’s the whole set. She is a woman I have known since she was 14 years old, when I met her in Designer Book through Marija Susana Rivadeneira. We worked from there. She traveled abroad to work with agencies such as Elite Model in the United States and Europe, and had to return due to the pandemic. From there we prepare for Miss Universe. It was prepared at the local and international level, which has been shown during this time”, he emphasizes.

Is change necessary?

Opinions are divided here. There are those who assure that the success of the candidate does not depend only on the organization. And there are those who emphasize that, without positive results, a change of direction is necessary.

Herrera assures that it is the attitude and professionalism of María del Carmen de Aguayo, the director of the Miss Ecuador organization, that maintains the level of the Miss Ecuador competition as one of the most important. “Everyone is trying to talk and discredit. I lived it up close, not for a year but for many years, and that’s the reason why I stay, because we work with a lot of professionalism and perseverance; the most important thing: ethics and discipline. Is that questionable? Not”.

“You understand that in the 20 years that the organization will have, under the same leadership, only two classifications have been achieved: one when Ecuador hosted María Susana (Rivadeneira) and the other with Constanza (Báez), and also that we all know that it is personal the achievement of her and her family, not the organization (…) With these results, which are not favorable, a change in the organization is needed,” Hidalgo points out.

Journalist Angello Barahona recently published a harsh criticism on his social networks, stating that to win the crown, a new generation is needed to lead this national competition. “The ‘organization’—as such—I would say does not exist. The organization is something like what exists in Venezuela, a large company with a megastructure and experts who advise the companies. misses. I think we sent beautiful women, but not competitive ones. (…) There must be a change of direction because it is not child’s play. That’s the name of Ecuador. “We all dream of having Miss Universe,” he emphasizes.

When asked by Barahona what our representatives need for Miss Universe, she answers: “You need to be a lioness.” Be a hurricane, like the Venezuelans, the Colombians, and now the Peruvians. There are no walks along the route of beauty, no judging in cantonal reigns; It’s a distraction. Miss Ecuador for Miss Universe must have the mentality of an Olympic athlete. Be absolutely fitness; The body must be very well prepared. Speaking, emotional and lexical speed is achieved with daily exercises, but with minimal preparation of a year and a day (…). Miss Nicaragua opted for basics; She made her debut on stage, there she was a lioness. And no one beats a lioness,” he claims.