In case you hadn't heard, the 2010 Miss Universe pageant has been held (at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas).

The winner is Miss Mexico—Jimena Navarrete. Congratulations, Miss Navarrete! (Any relation to Ruben?)  (Mexico's Jimena Navarrete Crowned Miss Universe, AP, Aug. 24th, 2010)

If you look at a few photos of the Mexican Miss Universe (try here, here and here) it's obvious that this young lady is white—that is, of predominantly European ancestry. She is actually lighter-skinned than Miss Spain, the Canary Islander Adriana Reveron (see here and below).

A group picture below shows that Miss South Africa is white, Miss Puerto Rico is blonde, and even Miss Jamaica is light-skinned.

Why is this significant?

The typical Mexican argument is that Americans are racist xenophobes, while Mexicans and other Latin Americans, being a mixed-race people, are non-racist, tolerant and inclusive. Some would take it a step further—that we as a nation should just accept being absorbed by Latin America and become one big happy egalitarian family.

Study the history of the region and you'll see that it's not one big happy family. And it's certainly not egalitarian. Mexican society—and Latin America as a whole—is strongly stratified by race.

Generally speaking, the higher you go up the socioeconomic ladder, the whiter it gets. Are there exceptions? Of course. But the general rule holds true.

Take a look here at the nine richest men in Mexico : Carlos Slim (world's richest man), Ricardo Salinas Pliego (media), German Larrea (mining), Alberto Bailleres (metallurgy), Jeronimo Arango (Wal-Mart), Emilio Azcarraga (media), Roberto Hernandez Ramirez (banking), el Chapo Guzman (drug smuggling), and Alfredo Harp Helu (Slim's cousin).

Slim and Harp are of Lebanese ancestry, the other seven are European.

By the way, when I say a person is white, that doesn't mean she has to be 100% white. After all, many white Americans have some American Indian blood, but they are still considered white. Even Winston Churchill, from his American mother's side, was likely one-sixteenth Iroquois Indian. In Latin America, there are millions of mestizos and mulattos who are, for all practical purposes, white.

When it comes to Mexican showbiz, whites definitely dominate. And the public seems to accept that.

And as for high-level beauty pageants, although Mexico is 60% mestizo and 30% Indian, it's the girls from the white end of the racial spectrum who are consistently selected to represent Mexico.

I have written about this before. See my article Diversity is Strength!... But Not for Mexican Beauty Queens.

I received some really angry mail in response to that article.

I guess there's something about mixing the topics of beauty pageants and racial hypocrisy that really enrages people. However, not a one of those letters refuted what I pointed out, which is obvious to all but those blinded by rhetoric.

One individual wrote me three letters which constituted one long rant. Here are some choice excerpts:

"your such an a——e hypocrit allan wall? you know that? read your article about my country of Mexico,… I have lived in both countries. USA and Mexico. What I hate about the USA is that you people have some segregration type of sytem where you only want caucasians to mingle with caucasians… "

(What is this guy talking about?)…

"I never had an american white female friend in my whole time I lived in USA, becuase you probrably don't want your sisters or daughters to socialized with dirty mexicans, the way you portray us in your media."

(Hmmm, is that what he's unhappy about?)

"When I went to Mexico to live with my relatives I instantly made a number of pretty white looking mexicans and other latinas such as Argentinians, Chilenas. That view me as one of them since I am latino. I am very happy with my social life with my people."

(So what are you complaining about?)

"…I never had an american friend because of your segregations or the way you portray us mexicans in the media. Show me a american female that is willing to be my friend for once? I am not looking for a relationship because I am very happy with my mexican wife and my circle of latina friends. Some look white and others are dark. I don't find american females attractive because I prefer the various complexions of latinas we have in latin america."

(Say, has your wife read this letter?)

In another missive, the same individual wrote:

"WHY ARE AMERICANS ACCUSED OF BEING RACIST? Very simple Mr. Allan! Because you a——s portray us mexicans as short, dark skinned indians. That is the image your media makes of us. And you americans make an all white brady bunch image of yourselves."

[Has this guy seen any American TV produced since the 1970s?]

"Hollywood only portrays mexican as dark with dark colored eyes. …You idiot americans only want to see what you program yourselves to view us mexicans to look like….

"We would fight you a——e americans if you segregrate our families by skin color."

Throughout this entire rant (and there's plenty more), my correspondent never refuted what I said—that Mexican beauty pageants favor white women.

You can't blame Hollywood or the U.S. media for that. It's the Mexicans themselves who consistently select white Mexican beauty queens.

And it's not just for the Miss Universe contest—there are other international pageants in which Mexican beauty queens compete.

Anabel Solis represents Mexico in the Miss World pageant, look here to see how white she is.

Then there's Anagabriela Espinoza, the Miss Mexico who won the Miss International 2009 contest, look here to see how white she is.

That means the three young women most recently chosen to represent Mexico in international beauty pageants represent the European end of the racial spectrum.

Jimena Naverette is not the first Mexican to be Miss Universe. She follows close on the high heels of Lupita Jones—a good British surname, that!—the Miss Mexico who won Miss Universe in 1991 (see photo here.)

In fact, Miss Jones is the director of Nuestra Belleza México, the pageant which selects the Miss Mexicos to compete in the Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss International contests.

But now that a Mexican has been crowned Miss Universe again, Miss Jones plans to step down. Allow me to predict that, even under new management, the pageant will continue to crown white Mexican beauty queens.

And it's not just the Mexicans. Look at Miss Colombia, Natalia Navarro, Miss Dominican Republic Eva Arias, and Mariana Vicente, Miss Puerto Rico.

Here's Miss Venezuela,  Marelisa Gibson (!), from the land of Hugo Chavez.

There are exceptions, of course. But by and large, after five centuries of racial mixing, Latin American beauty pageants definitely prefer to pick white Latin American women. That means that the standard of beauty is still based on a European model.

Some influential Latino activists in the U.S. admire the Raza ideology, developed and promoted by Mexican intellectual Jose Vasconcelos.

What they don't tell you is that Vasconcelos was a Nazi sympathizer during World War II.

Vasconcelos applauded race mixing in Latin America. But he promoted and predicted a racial mixture in which the whites remained on top! (See my VDARE.COM article Yes, La Raza Really Does Mean "The Race"—And The Idea Was Invented By a Nazi Sympathizer).

These beauty pageants, among other things, indicate that Vasconcelos´ prediction about whites in Latin America seems to have been right. Latin American white elites, including those who slam U.S. immigration policies, are somehow still firmly on top of their societies.

So why should Americans even care when they call us "racist" for enforcing our own immigration laws?

Closing note: This year's Miss Norway, Melinda Elvenes, is black—the daughter of a Norwegian father and a Botswanan mother.

Clearly, a different psychological dynamic is at work in Scandinavia!

American citizen Allan Wall (email him) recently moved back to the U.S.A. after many years residing in Mexico. In 2005, Allan served a tour of duty in Iraq with the Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are archived here; his Mexidata.info articles are archived here; his News With Views columns are archived here; and his website is here.