Las Vegas is always a special place for Mexicans. The city and the entire state of Nevada were once part of the Mexican (New Spain) Viceroyalty. For Miss Universe aficionados, Las Vegas is the place where Lupita Jones and Ximena Navarrete were crowned. Before the 2017 edition, every time the pageant was held in the city, Mexican beauty queens always made it to the semis.
Perhaps Miss Universe Mexico Denisse Franco was quite optimistic of her chances at Miss Universe 2017. You can’t fault her and her optimism. Not only Mexico is historically strong at Las Vegas, the country was also represented by a strong candidate. Shock is hardly the right word to describe what Mexicans had felt at the conclusion of Miss Universe this year.
What went wrong then? The new format of Miss Universe is to be blamed. The Top 16 was not the best 16. Someone who is geographically-challenged decided to slice and dice the world and pick the best from every region. It was a mess considering that were instances in the Miss Universe history when the best among the best were all from a single region (yep, the Latin American region).
Denisse Franco was a victim of the dramatic overhaul that is being purveyed to us by the new owners of Miss Universe. Unfair? Yes, but there is nothing that the fans can do about it. Change has come to Miss Universe and it was very apparent the moment that Denisse Franco failed to be in the semis at Las Vegas.
