Miss Cabrillo Festival Pageant

Another successful Spring Pageant has just concluded, and all hail the new Miss Cabrillo 2010. Crowned on March 28, 2010 at the Portuguese Hall down in Point Loma. The lucky winner is Miss Alyssa Goncalves-​another in an a long, illustrious line of lovely young Portuguese ladies who represent the Portuguese community.
This beauty contest is part of the annual Portuguese Festa (Festival) that takes place every spring and is sponsored by the Cabrillo Civic Club and Portuguese-​American Social & Civic Club.
Essentially the contestants are judged similar to Miss America –where they are graded on their personal interviews, questions-​and-​answers during the judging, and various presentations of formal attire. One thing that will always do a young Portuguese lady well here is wearing a bright or gaudy-​colored gown. Though previous winners look ravishing in virginal white, this year’s crop took a colorful adage to the next level-​in bright fuchsia or vibrant blue formal choices.
Not one to suffer looking like a wall-​flower, these gals went all out to get noticed in some splendor-​ish fashions with the ultimate winner gushing about how she has been going to these festivities since she was a little girl. The responsibilities of the winner include presiding over the annual Cabrillo Festival-​which takes place in late September
and honors the discovery of San Diego Bay by Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo on September 28, 1542.
In general the Festa Queen acts as a liaison and ambassador for the Portuguese community-​which has a uniquely proud ethnic tradition in their enclave of Point Loma and the Roseville neighborhood. I fight against the inclination to go to the Festa only because when I was a young girl, my parents would drag me and my brothers down there.
I remember a noisy, boisterous gathering where strange people spoke Portuguese that I didn’t understand and served nasty Portuguese Kale soup! I dreaded going and still must fight the urge to roll my eyes and say OMG when I am down there.
Still, it is something fancy that all the young girls ohh-​and-​ahh about; their mothers wish that their daughters would catfight for and the old grandmas are reminded of their younger and firmer days of yore!
So there exists a generational sweetness about Miss Cabrillo that cannot be denied. Now would someone please call a stylist !