Irene Lailin Sáez Conde (born 13 December 1961 in Caracas, Venezuela) is a Venezuelan politician and a former Miss Universe. She has been a model, was the mayor of Chacao (a municipality of Caracas), Governor of the state of Nueva Esparta and a former presidential candidate.

Pageants[link]

Sáez was crowned Miss Venezuela 1981 and later, crowned Miss Universe 1981 at the 30th annual pageant in New York City at the age of 19.^[1] She was also Queen of Club Campestre Los Cortijos for three years in a row. In 1997, she was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award at the Miss Universe Pageant, a recently created prize of the Miss Universe Organization. She made her acceptance speech in both English and Spanish. Sáez was received in the International Airport Simón Bolívar by former president of Venezuela, Luis Herrera Campins and he gave her a chain of gold for her victory in Miss Universe.

Political career[link]

Mayor of Chacao[link]

After spending a year travelling the world as Miss Universe, Sáez had studied political science at the Central University of Venezuela, and then served a year as Venezuela's cultural representative to the United Nations.^[2] In the early 1990s Sáez turned to electoral politics, and a week after the November 1992 coup attempt was elected mayor of Chacao Municipality, the wealthiest of the five municipalities of Caracas.^[2]

In office, Sáez tackled Chacao's high crime rate by professionalising the municipal police force, with university graduates as officers, higher pay, new police vehicles, and a variety of mobility devices (including roller skates and mountain bikes) allowing the police to move around quickly.^[2] Crime fell dramatically as a result.^[2] Without political experience or an established party machine, Sáez was happy to rely on experts, and "hired top-notch administrators and listened to their advice about everything from setting the budget to running public services."^[2]

By the time of the next election in December 1995, Sáez was so popular that she didn't bother to campaign, and only one independent candidate opposed her. Her 96% share of the vote was the highest in Venezuela's democratic history.^[3] The Times of London ranked her 83rd in its list of the 100 most powerful women in the world, and presidential rumours multiplied.^[3]

1998 presidential campaign[link]

Sáez kept her distance from the mainstream parties, and in 1997, she formed the Integrated Representation of New Hope (IRENE) party as a launch pad for her run in the December 1998 presidential elections. In the final poll of the year in December 1997 she reached almost 70%.^[4] However despite spending millions of dollars on publicity, she fell below 15% within six months, as the public became increasingly sceptical of her readiness for the Presidency, and as she lost credibility as an anti-establishment candidate after accepting the endorsement of COPEI.^[4]

She ran on a platform to end corruption, reducing bureaucracy and refinancing the public debt. One of the factors in her political demise was the rise of the radical Hugo Chávez, who provided a message of much more dramatic challenge to the establishment, including a constitutional assembly to write a new constitution. By contrast, Sáez "still spoke like a beauty queen anxious to avoid offending anybody in any way in anyplace,"^[5] and led some to speak of the contest as between "the beauty and the beast".^[6] At the same time, Sáez's late 1997 mis-step in Chacao of banning kissing in public plazas helped raise doubts about whether her success in the small, rich Chacao could translate to the Presidency.^[6] By August the Radical Cause party withdrew its backing, saying that she had "lost her status as an independent".^[7] Shortly before election day, even COPEI abandoned her in favour of endorsing Henrique Salas Römer.^[8] Ultimately she finished a distant third with 2.8% of the vote.

Governor of Nueva Esparta[link]

Soon after the 1998 presidential election, Sáez was elected Governor of the state of Nueva Esparta, in an election made necessary by the January 1999 death in office of Rafael Tovar. She won overwhelmingly with more than 70% of the votes, defeating the candidate of Democratic Action.

She served as governor of the state until 2000, stepping down when she became pregnant, denying rumors that she was pushed aside by Chávez.^[9]

Post-political private life[link]

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Sáez married American television producer and chemical heir Darryl duPont in 1982, the couple later divorced. Sáez remarried and had a son (born in 2000) and divorced again. She later moved to the United States to live in Miami, Florida. Saez married again and In 2003 she was named to the board of directors of the Colonial BancGroup, south Florida region. [2] and had a son.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Analysis of the political career of Irene Sáez.
• YouTube: Final Miss Venezuela 1981
• YouTube: Miss Universe 1981 Coronation
• YouTube: Irene Sáez Conde MU 81 special award
• Sáez as Governor (Margarita Island) - BusinessWeek Online, Oct. 18, 1999 issue

Awards and achievements
First	Miss Confraternidad Sudamericana 1981	Vacant Title next held by Paola Ruggeri (1983) as Miss Sudamérica
Preceded by Maye Brandt	Miss Venezuela 1981	Succeeded by Ana Teresa Oropeza

v t e Miss Venezuela winners in the Grand Slam pageants Miss Universe Maritza Sayalero (1979) · Irene Sáez (1981) · Bárbara Palacios (1986) · Alicia Machado (1996) · Dayana Mendoza (2008) · Stefanía Fernández (2009) Miss World Susana Duijm (1955) · Pilín León (1981) · Astrid Carolina Herrera (1984) · Ninibeth Leal (1991) · Jacqueline Aguilera (1995) · Ivian Sarcos (2011) Miss International Nina Sicilia (1985) · Consuelo Adler (1997) · Vivian Urdaneta (2000) · Goizeder Azúa (2003) · Daniela di Giacomo (2006) · Elizabeth Mosquera (2010) Miss Earth Alexandra Braun (2005) Dominican Republic India Panamá Philippines Puerto Rico USA Venezuela

Luis Alfaro (born in Los Angeles in 1963) is a renowned Chicano performance artist, writer, theater director, and social activist. His plays and fiction are set in Los Angeles's Chicano barrios, including the Pico Union district, and often feature gay and lesbian and working-class themes. Many of Alfaro's plays also deal with the AIDS pandemic in Latino communities.^[1] Noted plays include "Bitter Homes and Gardens," "Pico Union," "Downtown," "Cuerpo Politizado," "Straight as a Line," "Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner," "No Holds Barrio" and "Black Butterfly." Many of these plays have also been published as stories or poetry.

Alfaro has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the MacArthur "Genius" Foundation Fellowship in 1997, and the 1988 National Hispanic Playwriting Competition Prize. His writing, both sole-authored and collaborative, is collected in numerous anthologies. In 1994 his spoken-word CD, Downtown was released. His short film Chicanismo was produced by the Public broadcasting Service and released in 1999. He also contributed to the 1995 film Pochonovela, a collaboration between the Cuban American performer Coco Fusco and the LA-based Chicano performance ensemble, Chicano Secret Service. This mock telenovela explores and sends up Chicano activism and assimilation in a sardonic exploration of working class barrio life.^[2]

In 2010, his play Oedipus El Rey, a Chicano retelling of Oedipus Rex, had its world premiere at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco.

Bibliography[link]

Alfaro, Luis. "Pico-Union," in Men on Men 4, edited by George Stambolian, Plume, New York, 1992, pp. 268–283.

Alfaro, Luis. Down Town, (CD), New Alliance Records, Lawndale, 1993.

Alfaro, Luis. "Cuerpo Politizado," in Uncontrollable Bodies: Testimonies of Art and Culture, edited by Rodney Sappington and Tyler Stallings, Bay Press, Seattle, 1994, pp. 216–241.

Alfaro, Luis. "Bitter Homes and Gardens," in His, edited by Robert Drake and Terry Wolverton, Faber and Faber, Boston, 1995, pp. 100–107.

Alfaro, Luis. "Straight as a Line," in Out of the Fringe: Contemporary Latina/Latino Theatre and Performance, edited by Caridad Svich and Maria Teresa Marrero, Theatre Communication Group, New York, 2000, pp. 1–42.

Critical Studies[link]

Allatson, Paul. "Siempre feliz en mi falda: Luis Alfaro’s Simulative Challenge,” in GLQ (A Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies), vol. 5, no. 2, 1999, pp. 199–230.

Arrizón, Alicia. Queering Mestizaje: Transculturation and Performance, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 2006.

Foster, David William. “El cuerpo de Luís Alfaro: identidades sexuales y performance,” in Literatura e autoritarismo: estudos culturais, no. 1 (Janeiro 2003) [1].

Foster, David William. “The Representation of the Queer Body in Latin American Theater,” in Latin American Theatre Review, vol. 38, no. 1 (Fall 2004), pp. 23–38.

Foster, David William. El ambiente nuestro: Chicano/Latino Homoerotic Writing, Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe, Tempe, AZ, 2006.

Muñoz, José Esteban. "Luis Alfaro's Memory Theatre," in Corpus Delecti, edited by Coco Fusco, Routledge, New York and London, 1999.

Rodriguez y Gibson, Eliza. "Luis Alfaro," in The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature, edited by Emmanuel S. Nelson. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 2005. Vol. 1, pp. 131–132.

Román, David. "'Teatro Viva!' Latino Performance and the Politics of AIDS in Los Angeles," in ¿Entiendes? Queer Readings, Hispanic Writings, edited by Emilie L. Bergman and Paul Julian Smith (eds.), Duke University Press, Durham, 1995, pp. 346–369.

Román, David. “Luis Alfaro,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States, edited by Suzanne Oboler and Deena J. González, Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 2005. Vol. 1, pp. 57–59.

References[link]

Osmel Ricardo Sousa Mancilla (born 26 September 1946) is a Cuban-Venezuelan beauty pageant gurú^[1] and the president of the Miss Venezuela Organization. Formerly an advertising draftsman, Osmel Sousa joined the Venezuelan Committee of Beauty in 1969. Sousa continued working with that committee when, in 1970, Ignacio Font Coll reconstituted it as the OPPA Advertising Agency, which in turn was the predecessor of the actual Miss Venezuela Organization.^[2]

In the 1970s, Osmel Sousa undertook advising selected contestants, many of whom went on to win the Miss Venezuela crown, at the same time he started designing nightgowns for most of the contestants.

In October 1981 Ignacio Font Coll died and Osmel Sousa became the president of the Miss Venezuela Organization. During his 25 year career he has been considered to be the driving force behind the large number of Miss Venezuelas who go on to become Miss World, Miss Universe, Miss International and Miss Earth. He has been called a Pygmalion, an artist who turns out talented and beautiful young women.^[3][4] To date, Venezuela has six Miss Universe titleholders, six Miss World winners, six Miss International crowns, and one win in Miss Earth, becoming the most successful pageant powerhouse in history.

In 2007, Sousa joined with Lupita Jones, a former Miss Universe(1991), and Carlos Calderón, emcee of "El Gordo y La Flaca", in judging Univision's Hispanic beauty contest Nuestra Belleza Latina.^[5]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• (Spanish) "Osmel Sousa: Una Vida Dedicada a la Belleza" Miss Venezuela official website 1996;
• (Spanish) Interview with Osmel Sousa, Retrieved March 9, 2006;
• (English) Interview with Osmel Sousa, Retrieved March 9, 2006, dead link as of 31 March 2007;

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