Once again, the long tradition of Latin American beauties winning the World Banana Queen contest was broken when Susan Romanishin, an American model and businesswoman, was crowned World Banana Queen.
The contest, which was created 51 years ago, only became international in 1985 when the organizers allowed the participation of candidates from countries that produced, exported or consumed the fruit. On Saturday September 27, Romanishin, who is 22 years old and was born in Nevada, became the second representative of the U.S. to get that title.
The first U.S. citizen to be crowned was Amanda Delgado, in 2008. The countries that have won the most crowns since 1985 have been: Colombia, with six crowns, Venezuela and Costa Rica, with four, and Brazil with 2.
The only time the representative of the host country won the crown was in 1988, when the winner was Ximena Correa. Romanishin showed her ease and charisma during the show, which apparently tipped the scales in her favour. "I will promote consumption of Ecuadorian bananas in my country," she said.
"I also eat Ecuadorian bananas," she told one of the judges. The commitment of the sovereign is to become an ambassador for Ecuador's export fruit. The sovereign and the other candidates started to head back to their respective countries on Monday, September 29.
Source: Diario el Comercio