The fans of crowd favourite Miss Valle in the Miss Colombia contest 2011 – 2012 are all wondering the same thing; where did things go wrong for the gorgeous Melina Ramirez and what was she missing to be crowned Colombia’s queen?
Miss Valle stood out as a clear favorite throughout the rigorous Miss Colombia competition, winning important competitions along the way for her beauty, elegance and ability to win over the crowd.
Miss Valle took home a number of prizes, including “Best Face” for Jolie Vogue makeup and “Most Natural” in the extremely competitive bathing suit competition.
The public vote led her to win “Police Favorite” of the Cartagena police force and “Best Craft Costume,” demonstrating her popularity with her public.
But despite her gorgeous smile, banging bod and endearing personality, Miss Valle failed to reach her ultimate goal of becoming Miss Colombia, with the judges choosing Miss Atlantico to take on the highly sought after role.
It may have been her response in the important questions section, in which Miss Valle was asked to tell the crowd which book has had the greatest impact on her life, and why.
Miss Valle responded “I read a lot, I truly believe in literature, I think it is a way to become more cultured. As a child the book that impacted me most was ‘The Little Prince,’ which is a profound story. As an adult, ‘Crime and Punishment,’ which is a universal book that we should all read. Right now I’m reading a book by Irene Nemirovsky, a Russian author, a beautiful book called ‘Fire in the Blood.'”
Unfortunately for the lovely Miss Valle, Nemirovsky is actually a Jewish French author, and she didn’t say why these great reads were so important to her.
However, the little slip up doesn’t really seem like a good enough reason to undo all Miss Valle’s previous hard work throughout the competition.
Other critics, such as a journalist at RCN, argued that Miss Valle had been too elusive with the press, a decision that reduced her chance of winning the crown, while a report by El Pais claimed that her body did not stand out enough in the bathing suit contest – unlike the newly chosen queen Miss Atlantico and the runner up Miss Magdalena.
Still others doubted her commitment to the social work that is required by the reigning queens, after all, Miss Colombia is not just about banging bods and sexy smiles, it’s also about inner beauty, intelligence and, of course, world peace.
Jury Member Lucy Doughty told newspaper El Pais, “Beauty alone is not enough for a Miss Colombia, you must look deeper than the physical and focus on their social awareness, that they are already involved in social projects before entering the competition.”
Other critics negated those arguments though, by focusing solely on Miss Valle’s appearance. To some critics it was simply a matter of too much cellulite, while to others it was a problem of having had too much plastic surgery.
Whatever the reason, the lovely Miss Valle begins the year as one of Miss Colombia’s princesses, a role that will bring with it a number of opportunities to represent her country.