ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Liberal’s Southwest Community Fiesta may be a few months away, but the Cinco de Mayo Committee is already planning this year’s festivities.
One of the bigger events for this year’s fiesta will be the Southwest Fiesta Queen Pageant, which is currently seeking contestants.
“We are super excited to bring the Southwest Community Fiesta back, we're really thankful for the support we got last year from the vendors and sponsors and the community,” coordinator Clarissa Carrillo said. “Everything went really well last year, and that motivated us to bring this back for this year. Last year, we were hoping to officially bring back the pageant portion pageant and crown a Southwest Fiesta Queen, but that ultimately didn't happen, so we're wanting to bring that back for this year – we had a lot of little girls participate in the princess portion, and those parents were excited to see their little girls in that, but we weren't able to crown a queen. So this year, we're looking to bring back the full pageant, and we're looking for Southwest Fiesta Queen contestants. 1st place will receive a $500 scholarship, 2nd place will receive a $300 scholarship, and 3rd place will receive a $200 scholarship. The pageant itself will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14 at the Seward County Activity Center, and that's the night before the big fiesta activities.”
Carrillo said there is a lot of excitement among the committee members regarding the pageant.
“The most exciting part of it all, and the main goal, is to provide the opportunity for young people in the community to get involved. One of the other key components of the pageant is the opportunity to provide scholarships, which is always important, and that's a main mission of the Cinco De Mayo Committee,” Carrillo said. “From my own experience, it also provides the opportunity for women to be involved and improve ourselves and help battle some of those fears we have. When it comes to the pageant, it's not just about who's got the prettiest dress or shoes, it's about making sure these young women help improve public speaking skills and interview skills and other similar life skills they'll be able to take with them. The girls will start with the interview, and then after the interview is the show itself, which will include the cultural outfit like every other year. And for this year, with the cultural outfit portion, we want the girls to highlight not only their culture, but also something they're particularly passionate about, so that should allow them to get more creative and think about how they'd want to get involved in the community should they come away with the crown.”
With all of that in mind, Carrillo offered encouragement for young ladies in the community to sign up to be a contestant.
“For girls who want to participate, we'd like them to let us know as soon as possible, because we will be starting the workshops around early July, and we want all the girls to be able to attend all of them so they're all on an equal footing and so everyone's on the same page,” Carrillo said. “For anyone who's interested, they would need to get in touch with me at (620) 417-4043, or they can also email
Carrillo added she hopes the queen contestants learn and grow from their experience participating in the pageant.
“I would like to see the participants come in willing to learn and grow – if there's some pageant experience among our contestants, that's great, but we want to see collaboration and see the girls learning from each other and growing in confidence and everything else,” Carrillo said. “From the committee's standpoint, we want to provide as many of these kinds of opportunities as possible for local youths, whether it's with events like this or through community service hours opportunities. Events like these pageants let the girls practice their interview skills and public speaking skills, and public speaking is something everyone gets nervous about to a certain extent. These sorts of events also give the chance to learn how, if you come across something kind of scary but take the first steps in overcoming those fears, you'll be amazed at how much you grow. Every girl's journey is unique to her, but they all will have that shared experience of jumping in and trying something they might not entirely be familiar with. We will definitely be encouraging the young ladies to think about what they're passionate about and put together a platform so they can figure out how they want to engage with the community. We want the queen to be involved as much as possible, and from the committee's standpoint, it's important for us to build those partnerships with other groups and businesses in the community and making sure everyone knows each other. If these girls have a specific passion or platform they'd like to focus on, we'll do everything we can to support that.”
Along with the pageant, Carrillo said there is a lot to be excited about with the rest of the 2024 Southwest Community Fiesta festivities.
“We're really looking forward to provide this opportunity for the community to come together and celebrate and learn. It's truly a fiesta, and we want everyone to be part of it,” Carrillo said. “This is our second year, and we're just so energized and ready to see everyone who comes out. Last year had some slightly rough spots, but we were all also learning about what was working/not working, and we also just didn't know what to expect since we hadn't had a Cinco de Mayo celebration in so long for the community. We had to do a lot of work to spread the word and encourage people to come out and be part of everything we were doing, and everyone seemed to have a great time. We'll probably encounter a few speed bumps along the way since this will be our first year working to bring the pageant back, but we're taking that first step, and I hope everything will end up going really well. Again, we encourage everyone who's interested in participating to sign up as soon as possible, and they can get in touch with us in the ways I mentioned earlier. If you're looking for something new, go ahead and take that first step, don't be afraid, and reach out to us if you have any questions.”
