Miss Understood:
With A Story To Tell

It's 7 a.m. and the stretch of beach in front of El San Juan Hotel is mostly deserted. The sky is an intense blue; the same blue as the waves.  The zealot sun pounded our shoot with contaminating intensity. Metro San Juan 's photography crew is 20 minutes into a photo shoot of Ingrid Marie Rivera, Miss Puerto Rico Universe 2008, when a crowd of women interrupts the shoot.

“You are Miss Puerto Rico,” a woman says in a thick Bronx accent. “You're a la que le hicieron trampa?” The question refers to the famous pepper spray attack during the Miss Puerto Rico pageant last November, but it doesn't bother Rivera. Instead, the beauty queen walks up to the group, chats and lets them photograph her. Soon guests of the hotel and passersby swarm the beach, taking whatever images they can steal of the beauty queen with cameras and cell phones.

The crew wraps it up and walks into the hotel. Rivera keeps smiling and posing as she walks to the hotel room. “We love you,” someone shouts. “You are going to win.”

As we walk back, I ask her how it feels to be considered the favorite on many pageant websites. “Woo, hoo; go Puerto Rico ,” she says shrugging off my comment. I understand her reaction later when we sit down for the interview. Rivera fears the excess attention after the purported attack might hinder her chances for the crown. After the competition, she met Miss Universe franchise owner Donald Trump and the current Miss Universe Riyo Mori, who has told AOL Latino that she saw herself crowning Rivera in the following pageant. “The same reasons that might make people think that I can win are exactly the same reasons that can affect me and make me lose,” says Rivera.

Rivera adds that she doesn't really follow pageant websites. She'd rather focus on winning the Miss Universe title on July 14 in Vietnam . The event is less than two months away, and she reveals that she still needs to lose weight and have some of her wardrobe finished. She knows what will be judged that night is her character, her personality and her identity, and in turn, how well she portrays Puerto Rico 's cultural identity. Rivera acknowledges the difficulty and pressures of representing the island as it undergoes a fiscal crisis and its governor faces a federal indictment.

She says nothing would make her happier than to bring the crown home and give the island hope and happiness. Experts believe in her chances. After all, experience is on the veteran queen's side.

Genesis

Rivera describes her upbringing as rather normal. A very stable life; dad's a retired publicist and her mother is a former insurance agent. Rivera always knew she wanted to be in pageants, and still holds on to a picture of her and Miss Universe 1985 Deborah Carthey-Deu.

“I don't know who was posing more, her or me,” she says in perfect diction, unconsciously pronouncing every ‘s' at the end of each sentence. We are sitting on the couch in a hotel room overlooking the pool.

Rivera sits next to me to prove I don't threaten her. She folds her legs onto the couch, which she covers with pillows, revealing only the top of her short red dress. She still wears photography make up, which accentuates her haunting blue eyes, and is wearing her hair in a bun.

She explains that it was Dayanara Torres, Miss Universe 1993, who inspired her to start competing. “I saw Dayanara and how she later developed in music, acting and how she is always stunning,” Rivera says emphatically. “You look at her and it seems that it was yesterday that she won [Miss Universe].”

Rivera began competing at 17, the same age as Torres when she snatched the crown. Unlike Torres, Rivera's road to the Miss Puerto Rico pageant was circumspect.

Rivera began at the local Miss World pageant in 2002. She represented the town of Barranquitas , and won the local pageant.

At the international competition, she was second runner-up, and garnered the special awards of L'Oreal Beauty, Miss Hawaiian Tropic and Most Photogenic. Her Hawaiian tropic title took her to the national Hawaiian Tropic pageant in Hawaii where she was a finalist.

In 2003, she was assigned the local Miss Queen title after Luis Santiago, owner of the Miss Puerto Rico Petite franchise, purchased the Miss Queen franchise. She traveled to Canada to the international competition and won the Miss Global Queen crown.

In 2005, she won the Miss Puerto Rico World title for a second time, representing the town of Dorado . This time, she came in second, a runner-up once more, and was assigned the Miss World Caribbean title.

— Huáscar Robles

This story continues in the pages of Metro San Juan Magazine, Issue 6, on sale now.