Miss Mexico modifies pageant dress depicting hangings, belted by bullets

from mainichi daily news

MEXICO CITY -- Miss Mexico is redesigning her Miss Universe pageant dress -- not because it is too slinky or low-cut, but because it is too violent.

The floor-length dress, belted by bullets and accented by sketches of hangings during Mexico's Roman Catholic uprising in the 1920s, outraged Mexicans who said it was in poor taste and inappropriate for the world's most important beauty contest.

Critics said it glorified violence in a country where a battle between rival drug gangs has brought a wave of killings and beheadings.

Designers who helped select the dress from among 30 entries said they had wanted something that represented the nation's culture and history, especially since Mexico City is hosting the pageant in May.

"We wanted a dress that made you think of Mexico," said Hector Terrones, who served on the selection committee, to the leftist La Jornada newspaper. "The design should grab people's attention and have impact without giving too much information."

But many Mexicans weren't happy about the sort of history the dress dredged up, especially at a moment of debate about the Roman Catholic Church's role in politics and its lobbying against a Mexico City proposal to legalize abortion.

Cut from a traditional, natural cotton called manta, the dress depicted scenes from the 1926-1929 Cristero war, an uprising by Roman Catholic rebels against Mexico's secular government, which was imposing fiercely anti-clerical laws. Tens of thousands of people died.

The dress unleashed a storm of criticism. La Jornada carried close-ups of controversial images from the dress, including a man facing a firing squad.

Already angered by the church's strong stance against a proposals to legalize abortion, many leftists said including Catholic martyrs in the design was another sign of priests inching their way back into national affairs.

"It's inappropriate to use images of this Cristero war that cost so many lives and was so pointless," said Guadalupe Loaeza, a contemporary Mexican writer.

Miss Mexico, Rosa Maria Ojeda, presented the dress March 29, showing off the billowing, hoop skirt adorned with sketches of Roman Catholic rebels hanging from posts. Rosaries and scapularies hung from her bullet-studded, bandolier belt. She completed the outfit with a huge crucifix necklace, a black halter top and a wide-brimmed sombrero.

The gown's designer, Maria del Rayo Macias, told La Jornada that "we are descendants of Cristeros. Whether we like it or not, it's a part of who we are." Macias is from Guadalajara, a city in what was the Cristero heartland.

La Jornada columnist Jorge Camil said a dress was not the place to recount the event.

"It would be like Miss USA wearing a dress showing images of the Ku Klux Klan in the Deep South, with their hoods, their burning crosses and beer cans," he wrote. "A beauty contest is very far from being the right place to vent political and religious ideologies."

Ojeda's representatives did not return phone calls seeking comment, but sent The Associated Press a statement late Monday stating that the dress would be "modified" due to "the concerns that have surfaced regarding the design."

Pageant spokeswoman Esther Swan said the new skirt will have ribbons and ruffles -- but no images.

Mexican church officials also argued that using the war as a fashion statement was disrespectful to the thousands who died, some of whom were later named saints.

The conflict, rarely talked about today, was the culmination of a century of bloody struggles over liberal attempts to slash the power of the church, which had been an arm of the Spanish colonial government for three centuries, owning vast tracts of land and savagely persecuting rival religions. The church later supported a foreign invasion of the country.

The secular government that emerged from Mexico's revolution of 1910-1917 toughened anti-clerical laws imposed earlier, setting off a conflict in which churches and convents were shuttered, foreign priests were expelled and mobs sacked sanctuaries. Religious raiders responded by blowing up passenger trains and attacking government forces.

By the time the U.S. Embassy helped mediate an end to shooting in 1929, only a few hundred priests remained in Mexico.

"It's not right for Mexico, in an important international event like Miss Universe, to remember this sad and unfortunate fact of our history," Monsignor Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel told La Jornada. "This traditional outfit alludes to events that opened deep wounds." (AP)