Campbell woman crowned Miss Latino America

By GRAIG GRAZIOSI

ggraziosi@vindy.com

CAMPBELL

When Stephanie Miranda, 24, of Campbell looks at her hand, she is reminded of her victory in Panama City.

She slides a diamond ring off her finger – a gift she received for being crowned Miss Latino America, beating 19 women during an international pageant in September – and tilts it to show off a series of 20 markings along the interior of the golden band.

“During the competition, they took all of us out, and we got to watch them make this ring,” she said. “We each were allowed to make our own mark on the ring before the metal cooled, and the winner got to keep it.”

As Miss Latino America, she represents all of the women whose marks were left on the ring – competitors, but also fellow travelers – and will be the face of the organization, volunteering in its name and eventually crowning the next woman to win the pageant.

In the meantime, Miranda – who moved to Campbell with her family from San Juan, Puerto Rico, when she was 5 – will continue living a life much more relatable to the average 24-year-old – waiting tables for a catering company and searching for jobs to try to justify the time and money spent working on her college degree.

With a degree from Youngstown State University in communications and a minor in journalism, Miranda hopes to eventually work as on-camera talent on an entertainment news program.

Thanks to her involvement in pageants, she’s had a taste of the kind of celebrity exploits she’d like to report one day – travel to exotic locations, swimming in tropical waters during yacht trips and international recognition for her talents and beauty.

Miranda began competing in pageants when she was 14, and by 18 she had her first victory at the Miss Ohio Latina competition. She says competing in the pageants has allowed her to feel confident in both her intellect and her body, and has provided opportunities she would never have had if not for the competitions. Volunteering has also become an important aspect of her life; locally, she has worked with Youngstown CityScape, the Alzheimer’s Association and with a number of schools in Cleveland.

As a result, she bristles at the idea that the pageants do more harm than good – that they’re objectifying rather than empowering.

During her competition in Panama, she actually tied with a contestant from Uruguay. Throughout the competition, the women had been judged on their swimwear, evening wear, hair, walk and were asked a “final question.”

Her “final question” – what she would do if she had to sell a year of her life, and what she would charge for it – she answered by stating she’d give it freely to her grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimers, so she could enjoy a year of cognizance and health. Despite her answer, the judges were split. So it went to a tiebreaker, but rather than a beauty showdown, the judges asked another question.

She was asked what Latino America was to her, and she answered that despite all of the different cultural backgrounds of those under the banner of “Latino American,” she felt there was one underlying, proud culture encompassing and empowering them as a whole, and that there was strength in that unity.

Then she won.