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| The winner - the contestant from first grade |
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| My K'iche' teacher giving the opening blessing |
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| Waiting to escort |
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| Members of my host family (Meli in her traje de gala) |
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| My host niece in her traje tipico |
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Elección del Reina Infantil - Election of the Child Queen
Schools here in Guatemala participate in and put on many different cultural events throughout the year. It is really nice to see that they are actively trying to preserve their Mayan heritage and as a newcomer in Guatemala it is awesome for me to see, but as a healthy schools volunteer sometimes I wish that they would just have classes. Oh well. One of the most recent events put on by the school in my town was the Elección del Reina Infantil (Election of the child queen). I unfortunately don't work in this school, but my host niece, Meli, was the contestant for preprimaria (kindergarten). Much like the elección of the madrina that I went to where the contestants were the teachers this was a beauty pageant for the girls in the school. One girl from each grade kindergarten-sixth participated in this event. This time there were three categories: traje tipico (traditional Mayan dress), traje deportiva (sportswear), and traje de gala (evening-wear). The winner gets to be queen for the year and was featured in an elaborate peacock float in the parade during our town fair.
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Do the kids--both participants and the audience--seem to enjoy this as anything other than a break from regular classes? In particular, did Meli have fun?
ReplyDeleteHow is the "queen" selected. Is it a panel like on American Idol?
The kids don't seem to have a lot of fun during these events as they mostly just walk back and forth modeling their outfits.
DeleteThe "queen" is selected by a panel of judges (usually mostly men) who are male leaders in the community. For example my counterpart the superintendent of the school district was one of the judges for this contest.
The last picture of your host niece in her traje with one hand on her hip and the other at the hem of her traje is priceless. The bows in her hair are beautiful. I suggest the addition of a "health" category to the Eleccion del Reina Infantil contest. It would be fun to see what kind of costumes that might produce. Mom
ReplyDeleteMeli is darling. Are you still taking K'ichi'? Glad to see a photo of your teacher.
ReplyDeleteI finished my initial 20 hours of class a couple of months ago and am planning on taking more, but I haven't started started them again. School vacation has so far been much busier for me than when school was in session.
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