Four Ladies Vying for Ms Indian Cultural Pageant.
Four young ladies are vying for the title of the fifth annual Miss Indian Cultural Pageant. It is a pageant that aims to raise awareness and appreciation for East Indians in Belize. The Corozal Organization of East Indian Cultural Heritage is observing the event this year under the theme, ‘Capture Cultural Rhythm.’ Today we spoke with the organizer and two of the candidates about this years’ Miss Indian Cultural Pageant.
Sylvia Gilharry Perez, President, Corozal Organization of East Indian Cultural Heritage (COEICH)
Sylvia Gilharry Perez
“Well, we find that the East Indian Culture is fast disappearing and since 2009 we were encouraged by a visiting professor from Trinidad to try and start an organization that will try to recapture what we had lost. Try and preserve it, the little we have left and also to promote the culture. We have been having festivals each year and we started the pageant because we felt that we need to bring the young people on board because they will be the ones who will take over after we are gone and if they don’t get to learn much of it then wha6 will happen and so we try to get them on board so that they can get an experience of what their culture is, how rich it is and why they should try and preserve it and promote it and also practice it. And we find that by having a pageant will be an enticing way for them to come on board because sometimes they say…culture is for old people but not so, we’d like them to be involved also.”
Gwen Smith
Gwen Smith, Contestant, Miss Indian Cultural Pageant
“I am in this pageant because I wanted to embrace my culture for once because I grew up very Americanized. So once I turned eighteen I was like okay I want to take a step to get to know my culture more and to learn more about it.”
Andrea Polanco
“Now, how have you prepared for this pageant?”
Gwen Smith
“I have studied a lot, I have been watching a lot of videos and people have been training me for my dances.”
Andrea Polanco
“What is one thing you would like the public to know that perhaps you have learnt about your own culture that we are not that aware of or we don’t speak that often about the East Indian people of Belize?”
Gwen Smith
“We are very loving and welcoming people, I don’t know if many people know that but if you wave at us we will literally wave back to you.”
Brianna Martin
Brianna Martin, Contestant, Miss Indian Cultural Pageant
“I want to get a better experience of my culture and learn the tradition also, because from I was little I wasn’t brought up with the practices of the Indian so I joined it to learn more and practice more.”
Andrea Polanco
“What would you like people to know about your culture that you learnt already?”
Brianna Martin
“That the Indian people, are very hard working people and they are very successful and they find a way to maintain themselves when others can’t.”
The pageant is being held at the Andres Campos Civic Center in Corozal Town on July twenty-eight at seven P.M.
