My words will be ignored. Yet my pics of Domonique Ramirez will garner lots of attention. Miss San Antonio is quite beautiful. My writing is the ugly stepsister in Cinderella. And Pageant spokeswoman Linda Woods is morphing towards my camp, the ugly stepsister bunch that nag and bristle with indignation, as jealous as they are for the gorgeous waif that scrubs and scrubs and dreams the BIG DREAM!
Today is Ramirez’s day in court where District Judge Larry Noll will rule on whether she keeps her crown as Miss San Antonio or has to relinquish it to Ashley Dixon, who was runner up in the beauty contest. Her attorney, Luis Vera Jr., is alleging racial overtones in the way his client has been treated.
Most of the trouble didn’t begin until Caroline Flores took over as the Executive Director of the Bexar County Organization Inc., which puts on this beauty contest for San Antonio. Caroline Flores got in a row with Miss Ramirez’s mother on the telephone and the revocation of the crown came by email (from Caroline Flores) on January 24th.
Miss Ramirez is filing a lawsuit against this beauty organization that claims each of the allegations that she breached her contract are untrue. The League of United Latin American Citizens is helping with the legal arguments.
The main issues, from what I can tell, are tardiness to events, weight gain, insubordination, and allowing her boyfriend to attend these events. Oh, there’s also the wedding shoot, which is a paid freelance gig, that Domonique does on the side.
Ramirez has done a good job of countering these charges, by appearing on various talk shows, such as the Today Show or Jane Velez-Mitchell, where she did a proper job last night of countermanding these seemingly fictitious charges.
As for her weight, she currently weighs 128 pounds, which is what she weighed back in April, when the Miss San Antonio pageant was held. She looks perfectly thin on high definition television, so Caroline Flores and Linda Woods are seeing adipose tissue that doesn’t exist!
Linda Woods saying “Get off the tacos, get off the chips and soda,” will come back to haunt her. That may have already happened. The bit about tacos is a stereotyping of Latinos. Like she’s a chubby little Mexican chick. This inspires indignation; this sort of typecasting will not go away too easily. Domonique is just the opposite. She’s articulate, well poised and confidant, professional and natural (strikingly pretty) when in front of a camera.
Her treatment by these beauty pageant moguls reminds me of the dodgy outfit Hooters, who treat their ladies like trash if they don’t fit perfectly into those tacky spicy chicken wing uniforms that they are required to wear. Miss Ramirez is taking the conflict to a higher level, and fighting for the dignity and rights of any future holders of the crown of Miss San Antonio.
I hope she wins today in court, but even if she doesn’t, she is already a victor in the court of public opinion. I sense that her fame is already secured and that Miss Ramirez will make a beeline to the Silver Screen in no time flat. She is famous in England now, since the Daily Mail ran a piece (‘Get off the tacos’) on her from February 10th.
Unfortunately for Linda Woods this phrase is the hook of this story, an offensive sound bite, frenzy for the internet that has a negative electric charge that virile-matic! Obviously, it’s condescending and a racially inflected power-phrase. Why didn’t she say ‘Get Off the Whataburgers’ or ‘Cool it on the Whoppers!’ Or ‘quit gorging yourself with Big Macs!’ Made my point. Doesn’t go over well in SA!
