Intellectual Miss Universe Venezuela 2022 Amanda Dudamel
Tell us about Amanda Dudamel who is going to represent Venezuela at Miss Universe 2022, and tell us more about her background.
Hector: She was born in Merida, Venezuela. It is a beautiful region here in Venezuela. It is one of the quintessential regions here because it has snow there, so she is most known because she is the daughter of the director of the football team here in Venezuela. She grew up watching all the football games with her father. Now she is recognized because she is Miss Venezuela, she has studied fashion design in Italy. After her graduation, she returned to Venezuela. She has a project that helps people living in Petare, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Miranda, Venezuela. She comes from a prominent family with a considerable financial situation. She had the opportunity to travel to many countries; Italy, South Africa, Chile, and Colombia. She understands how the world works, how to communicate with other people, and make friends quickly.
George: I am pleased to hear that she has a fashion background; her outfits are trendy, stylish, and chic. She can communicate in different languages is a tremendous thing. It will benefit her as she speaks fluent English, Spanish and Italian languages. Living in so many countries has broadened her perspective on life; it has allowed her to develop her knowledge because when you live in different places, experience different cultures and learn from them. It has provided her with the ability to understand people's perspectives, it will help Amanda when she goes to Miss Universe.
Can you tell us about her advocacy called Made in Petare?
Hector: Petare is the location where Isabella Rodriguez, Miss World Venezuela 2018 was born. This place is full of poverty; they lack necessities, and it is hard to obtain water or food for the people living in this area. Her project has been helping those people, her assignment started way before joining Miss Venezuela. It gives her credibility when people see that it is authentic and relevant for the community in Petare. She is not doing this only to captivate people's attention; it is extremely important to her as it is dear to her heart.
George: She is not only helping these underprivileged people by donating food or clothes or books but she is giving them financial independence through creating job opportunities for people so, they can be independent and feed their families. Providing employment is so helpful, as we live in this world where money is essential.
What is her biggest strength and what can we expect to see from her in Miss Universe 2022?
Hector: She has a special aura, sweet, full of joy. She is always smiling and radiates positive energy. In the Miss Universe competition, many girls cannot handle the pressure, she is very optimistic, and it will help her as she already has her project. Runway walking is not her strongest skill because we have not seen many walking videos. High expectations from Amanda; I am waiting to see her runway performance in the Preliminary Competition. Nowadays, being a beauty queen is more than just performing on the stage; when she speaks, she is engaging and connects with her audience.
George: Being able to speak many languages will be an advantage for Amanda as she moves forward in the Miss Universe pageant. She speaks English, Spanish and Italian languages fluently. It will give her the edge over other delegates who may speak 1 or 2 languages. She will be able to understand other Miss Universe delegates on a deeper level. For example, Spanish is spoken by many Latin American delegates, if you speak Italian you will be able to unite with Miss Italy. Also, Miss Philippines is half Italian, and Miss Peru is also half Italian. There are few delegates this year with Italian background, and she will be able to express herself with them and have a familiarity about their lifestyle.
Hector: She can speak English fluently, and she can uphold herself in the final question if she gets into the Top 5 or Top 3 finalists. She can answer in English; we have not seen a Venezuelan woman since Dayana Mendoza in Miss Universe 2008 who won with an English answer. It would be great to listen to a girl from Venezuela who can speak English, without the help of a translator.
How are Miss Venezuela's preparations going for Miss Universe 2022?
Hector: She needs to improve how she does her makeup and her hairstyle because even though we say it does not matter. It matters because it is all about presentation; making a good impression. After all, this is still a beauty pageant. She is preparing with Alexander Gonzalez for Miss Universe 2022. He had trained Nadia Ferreira from Paraguay (Miss Universe 2021 1st Runner Up) last year, he prepared Julia Gama from Brazil (Miss Universe 2020 1st Runner Up) and he also helped Riyo Mori, he gave her the advice to wear the black Gucci gown because she is a dancer with good body movements. He is a very talented Venezuelan pageant mentor; he is the one that was screaming and ran on the stage after Amelia Vega was crowned Miss Universe. He prepared Amelia Vega for Miss Universe 2003; she ended up becoming the winner. He has many years of training beauty queens in this industry. I think it was necessary for Amanda because of the Miss Venezuela organization. They are not giving the girls the training they had before. For example, Sthefany Gutiérrez had a different training than Amanda or Mariángel or even Luiseth received last year. The training after Sthefany has been weak preparation but with Alexander. He is going to help her improve and we Venezuelans are waiting to see what she is going bring to the table.
George: Venezuelan beauty queens always give attention to intensive training sessions with qualified and highly skilled mentors. For example, Mr. Osmel Sousa used to be the president of Miss Venezuela from 1981 until 2018. Under Mr. Osmel's guidance, he helped Venezuela become a great pageant powerhouse nation. Miss Venezuela 2021 Amanda was crowned in October 2021, and she will have over 1 year to prepare for Miss Universe. As final date for Miss Universe 2022 is still not confirmed, but it will happen early next year. By the time, she goes to Miss Universe 2022, she will be polished and ready to compete in the Miss Universe pageant.
Hector: I would like to see a different hairstyle as she had during the Fadil photoshoot. Her hair and makeup were perfect during the Fadil photoshoot in New York; I think this suits her style. Amanda needs to style like this for Miss Universe. In Venezuela, many makeup artists use heavy makeup. Girls have too much makeup, we see the makeup rather than the beauty of the girls. We do not see the real beauty, I want the makeup to enhance the beauty of the delegates but not get all the attention away from the girl. I like that photoshoot she did with Fadil (photos attached above) because she looked gorgeous.
I like the Voices Across the Universe online series; she has been doing with other Miss Universe delegates. What do you think of Voices Across the Universe? Can you tell us about this online series?
Hector: I love that she is doing that because she has the opportunity to meet all of the girls, and make friends with them. Make a friendship that is going to last forever. When she goes to Miss Universe, she will not be surprised by the girls as she will already know them before going. This is a good series, this will help improve her communication skills. She did Instagram live with Natalie Glebova, Miss Universe 2005 from Canada. She was speaking very well, very intelligent, and full of confidence and life.
George: Social media is a powerful tool, and we have it at our fingertips. We can connect with people. For example, you live in Latin America. Venezuela is literally on the other side of the world, I am in Thailand. We managed to connect because of our shared interest in and love for pageantry. She is being resourceful and other Miss Universe delegates need to use social media to their advantage. I enjoyed listening to her conversation, especially the one you just mentioned with Miss Universe 2005 Natalie Glebova. English is not her native language but she was able to be relatable and give excellent conversation with Natalie Glebova when she was providing her with guidance and great advice to qualify during the close interview in Miss Universe 2022. I am impressed by Amanda's speaking ability; she is going excel in the closed-door interview.
What message would you like to give to Miss Venezuela 2021 Amanda Dudamel?
Hector: First of all, I have to say the Venezuelan people are being very mean to me right now because I put her in my Top 10 in seventh place. They said you hate Amanda and you do not like her. Venezuela is my country, I like Amanda, being placed in the Top 10 is not bad. Many girls want to reach the semi-finalists, but many countries do not even place in the Top 16 in Miss Universe. I want to say to Amanda to have her own opinion and not let people on social media paint her or portray her in an image that is not real. They are just trying to put her, put all the other Venezuelans against me, and I think that is very mean. I do not know, why they are doing that because I do not do that, I do not disrespect beauty queens. I have been respectful to her but more than that, I want to say that she has to trust herself. She has to keep showing up with that big smile. She has to keep working like she has been doing, she has going to have a lot of time to be more refined. I am waiting to see more improvement from her. She has not gotten to that moment yet, I want her to get into the momentum 100 percent. I trust her and I hope that she can realize that she has this essence, and aura which cannot be found in other girls.
George: We are very similar since both of us are pageant commentators. Both of us also run our pageant pages on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube as you guys are reading this article. Sometimes when we post our prediction or favorite list. We tend to get a lot of backlash from people who may not like our list. That is tough because we cannot please everyone, it is our favorite list. I think people need to be more respectful of other people's choices. They can disagree and it is fine, but I think we should be more mindful of our actions on how we share our thoughts and opinions on social media because it could hurt the mental health of the beauty queens; you do not know what they are facing. The emotional stress; when they are competing on an international platform like Miss Universe. There is so much that they have to do to prove they are amazing delegates. They already have mental stress, so let's not give any more of that to the beauty queens, and let's be more mindful of our actions. Just support them and encourage them.
Every year many pageant fans support their queens but we also see some fans pulling other delegates down. What are your thoughts on the online bullying of delegates?
Hector: People should just enjoy this because beauty pageant just happens once a year. You do not have to destroy the emotions of people because I am doing my work with happiness with a lot of love and receiving really bad feedback. It is just not great.
George: Hector has received a lot of backlash after posting his Top Prediction of Miss Universe 2022. Let's be nice to each other, let's be kind to each other. We did a previous video about Miss Universe 2020 and I am so happy that we can build this friendship and move forward because we can do this despite our different languages, despite our cultures being so different from one another from Venezuela to Thailand. I think you guys as pageant fans should also be able to do that as well. That is all, I am going to say - let's be kind to each other and let's spread the positive message, the positive energy to one another.
Hector: Instead of organization, it's fans because they can say do not do bullying or whatever but they are always going to be one black ship in the group. That is very confusing for me and it is unfortunate because I want people to be more kind, I want people to be like oh that's your job. It is okay, it is your decision, and it is your perspective. We do not have to agree and it's okay but people it is not like that people are gonna say you are just hating and I am like that is not true. We have to stop doing that, we have to stop judging people, we have to stop having these thoughts of how a person is when we do not know them. A lot of people do not know me but they think they know everything about me and probably you have been in the same position too.
In the end, do you have any message you want to give to our viewers? Especially from Latin America?
Hector: Thank you very much, everyone, for reading this article with me and George from Pageant Empress. We had a great time and at the same time, we talked about pretty deep issues and how we treat other people. Not only Miss Universe delegates but also people who run pageant pages like us who also love pageant things. Please, let's give a good vibe to what we are doing because at any moment, we can be three meters underground and we will not have the opportunity to do anything. So, let's try to leave a positive mark.
Where can our viewers reading this article find you on social media?
I usually post a lot on Instagram, my username is @hectorjcermeno and my Facebook is Hector Cermeño and you are going to find me there. Let's enjoy this experience and well George. I know that you and I will meet in the Miss Universe experience. I hope to see you there. Wherever it is going to be, we have to go, please. We have to go that is going to be our moment.
George: Definitely, make sure to follow him on his social media platform. I just watched his Miss Universe Prediction and we have the same Top 5 countries. I found that fascinating, I thought oh my god! what is going on because we have the same countries.
Hector: We are connected, we live in different countries, we have a lot of distance between us and we have the same picks. That's great!
George: I have updated my top five after Puerto Rico crowned Ashley as the delegate for Miss Universe. We both have Colombia, Puerto Rico, Peru, the Philippines, and Thailand as our Miss Universe 2022 Top five Prediction. I thought, oh my god this is amazing that we have the same countries in the Top 5 prediction. In the end please, make sure to follow him give him love, and encourage him so he can move forward. So, he will be able to create more amazing contents for you guys to enjoy. I like watching his videos even though I do not speak Spanish but he has the option to click CC Button; I can see his videos with English Subtitles.
George: Thank you so much for reading this article about Miss Universe Venezuela 2022 Amanda Dudamel.
Hector: Good night from Venezuela, Muchas gracias George.
Muchas gracias, see you soon. Thank you so much.
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