It’s not Tequila, but Arandas, a small town in Los Altos of Jalisco, a two-hour drive east of Guadalajara, wants a piece of the action. Known regionally for its abundance of tequila and beautiful women, the town played host on Saturday, June 22 to Nuestra Belleza Jalisco 2006, a statewide beauty competition, in hopes that increased exposure will boost tourism and economic development in the area.
Though not part of Jalisco’s Agave Landscape, which was recently declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, Arandas has its own attractions: the breath-taking cathedral of San Jose Obrador Parish, an enormous bell residents claim is the seventh largest in the world and the Parque Hidalgo, the town’s central plaza which provided the location for last Saturday’s competition. The event was produced and broadcast by Televisa Guadalajara, which animated the town’s cathedral with fireworks, moving lights and pyrotechnics despite a light drizzle which threatened to postpone the competition.
The real host of the night, however, was Tequila Espolon, the Arandas-based tequila label that paid to bring the event to the town’s main square. Espolon provided dinner and a fresh bottle of tequila to those who could shell out 5,000 pesos for a table under the main tent. These mostly consisted of family and friends of the twelve contestants, along with some local leaders and officials. The general public, on the other hand, was invited to watch the show from chairs set up in front of four large projection screens. “We’re not going to see anything,” complained Maria del Rosario, a laundry worker from Arandas who sat in one of the furthest rows, which began to clear out once the rain started. “They covered the whole inside, so what can we actually see?”
Vicente Guerrero, an 80-year-old farmer and machinist sitting nearby, also expressed dissatisfaction with event. “There’s no benefit for the people, it’s a step backwards,” he said. “Even worse, they hired people from outside instead of from this town. What jobs does that open up for people of this town…people dying of hunger?” Arandas is primarily an agricultural town that suffered as a result of last year’s drought. Yet despite the current economic situation, many citizens saw the beauty competition as a positive way to get the town’s name out into the tourist market. “Televisa is a big network, on an international level as well as here in Mexico,” commented Manuel Ayala, a 42-year-old sale manager from Arandas. “That people are seeing Arandas will make us more national and international.”
Other residents seemed to agree. “I think that there will be various benefits,” said Daniel Gutierrez, a 17-year-old radio host from Arandas covering the event for a local station. “Most importantly, tourism, and next for the businesses that revolve around tourism.” Arandas has much more to offer than tequila, explained Fabiola Conseca Escoto, a 38-year-old resident of the town. “[This event will] give a chance for others in the state to find out about our city, our customs, our buildings,” she said. “The tequila is what made us famous, but also the hospitality of the people…attracts many visitors.”
More than 2,000 people attended the event on Saturday, July 22 and thousands more should tune in to watch the broadcast the following Friday. The winner was 18-year-old Gladys Castellanos Jimenez of Guadalajara, who in addition to becoming the official face of Tequila Espolon will compete in the national competition on September 2 in Tampico, Tamaulipas. “We’re very proud of Gladys, who in addition to having a physical beauty that everyone saw, also has an internal beauty which equals what’s on the outside,” said her aunt, Leticia Jimenez of Guadalajara, moments after the coronation. Residents of Arandas hope that, in the eyes of tourists, the same will hold true for their town.
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