Claiming and owning Filipino identity

IT is interesting that in a year when our candidate, Celeste Cortesi, failed to make it to the short list for the 2022 Miss Universe Pageant, that R'Bonney Gabriel, a Filipino American representing the United States, won the crown.

Cortesi's failure to land a spot in the semifinals is first after many years where our candidates usually made the cut, with two of them even winning the title, namely Pia Wurtzbach in 2015 and Catriona Gray in 2018. But Gabriel, whose father is a Filipino, also made first, as the first Filipino American who won the title representing another country. Her victory was a nice counterpoint to the loss of Cortesi.