Amid pageantry, a cultural lesson for participants

Ethnic beauty contests teach about heritage

LYNN - She swept onto the stage in a glittering silver gown and beehive hairdo, the picture of poise in spike heels. The crowd in Lynn Memorial Auditorium went wild.

There she was - Miss El Salvador Massachusetts.

For one glamorous evening, Marisela López was catapulted from college freshman to tiara-wearing queen as she competed in the pageant last month, one of a growing number of ethnic beauty pageants that have sprung up around Boston and the nation.

Organizers from Colombia, India, Cambodia, Vietnam, and other countries are pushing the pageants across the United States as a way to teach contestants about their heritage, inspire them to go to college by awarding scholarships, and pay homage to their immigrant parents, who often work as factory workers, housecleaners, and laborers.

Although critics decry pageants as sexist and superficial, promoters say the ethnic contests offer immigrants a positive outlet amid the contentious national debate over immigration. Locally, other groups, from Miss Colombia New England to the Southeast Asian Water Festival in Lowell, have organized pageants as well.

"It helps them discover what they didn't know about the culture," said Isabel López, a Winthrop-based fashion designer who launched Miss Colombia New England six years ago. "You have to be proud of where you come from."

Marisela López who is not related to Isabel, said she competed for more personal reasons. The US citizen is the daughter of a Salvadoran man who died on his way to cross the border illegally three years ago. The only time she visited El Salvador was for his funeral.

"I know that if he would have been here, he would have been so happy and proud," said López, who said she felt her father's presence when she won the crown. "I knew that he was there looking at me, like, 'That's my daughter.' "

The Salvadoran pageant, which has been held off and on for about a decade, requires that contestants study the Central American nation, said pageant organizer Karla Trigueros. At least one parent must be from El Salvador for contestants to qualify. The pageant typically has a contestant for each of El Salvador's 14 departments, or states, plus Boston.

On Sept. 20, as spotlights blinked and music boomed, more than 300 people craned their necks for a first look at the contestants. When the curtain parted and they appeared on stage, people shouted, whistled, and some waved signs such as "Miss Sonsonate #1."

"This is not just about beauty," a ponytailed emcee in a rose-colored sheath later told the crowd. "We're very intelligent and hard-working. We try to succeed wherever we are."

In the audience, immigrants nodded. Their daughters - the contestants - fit in more easily in the United States, since most were born and raised here. But they, too, straddle two cultures.

They speak English with their friends and Spanish to their parents. Their favorite foods are pizza and pupusas, a thick Salvadoran tortilla stuffed with cheese or meat. They dance to salsa music, and read Shakespeare.

During the competition, each answered questions in Spanish, saying that if they were queen, they would urge students to stay in school, stay off drugs, and work hard for their future.

Miss Sonsonate, Viviana Umaña, told the judges that beauty was not the important thing.

Some critics of the events say pageants treat women as sexual objects, with swimsuit competitions and the emphasis on looks.

At the Miss El Salvador pageant, which is for 15- to 23-year-olds, organizers pointed out that most contestants wore skirts for the swimsuit competition to make girls of all sizes feel comfortable. Still, men whistled from the audience and one prize was given out for "best legs."

"They really do have to be careful because there is such a problem today with girls and young women being pressed into early sexuality and early focus on weight and looks," said Carol Hardy-Fanta, director of the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

López decided to compete after Trigueros spotted her in an East Boston restaurant and complimented her on her makeup. At first, López balked. She is most comfortable in jeans, sneakers, and a ponytail as she shuttles between class at UMass-Boston and her part-time job at Logan Airport.

But this was a chance to remember her father.

López had been raised mostly by her mother, a US citizen from Puerto Rico. Her Salvadoran father had come to the United States to work and send money home.

He was in López's life sporadically, but he loved her, and she loved him. Three years ago, he went back to El Salvador to attend her half-sister's high school graduation. Then, like millions of other immigrants, he set off on his journey back into the United States.

López isn't sure how or where he died. When she went to his funeral in Chalatenango, his home state, she saw the house was filled with her photographs.

As queen, she won a $500 scholarship for college. In the pageant, her talent was salsa dancing. She hopes to study nursing.

When she won, her first thoughts were of her father.

"He was always proud of me," she said later.

Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com.