A queen without a photo, without a name, without a description of physical features or age.
That was the premise for choosing the representative of the Guaymallén Harvest 2023, which has been in the midst of a controversy for more than a year that ended in the provincial Court of Justice.
The beauty queens went to court to defend the contests and the vintage tradition.
And the Justice ended up giving them the reason: the Supreme Court of Mendoza ruled that the resolution of the Municipality of Guaymallén that prohibited the election and coronation of the Queen of the Harvest is unconstitutional.
In an express vote, the commune led by the radical Marcelino Iglesias had to enable the election at the Guaymallén party that took place this Friday night.
The winner will compete in the National Harvest Festival, which takes place on Saturday, March 4, in the General San Martín park in the city of Mendoza.
Departmental Festival of the Harvest of Guaymallén 2023, the festivities were held in the Salcedo roundabout.
Photo: Jose Gutierrez / Los Andes
In just 24 hours, the residents of Guaymallén were able to vote virtually for their candidate
favorite, prior registration in a registry, with proof of ID and all the data that proves that the person resided in the municipality.
The election had a peculiarity:
the voters could not see any photo, name or district to which the applicants belonged.
The Guaymallén website allowed the winner to be chosen through a phrase attributed to the contestant.
"As the municipality ratifies the decision that gender policies become State policies, the election of the 2023 departmental representative will not be conditioned by aesthetic or physical features," the commune said.
The residents who managed to register were only able to meet the 19 applicants, through their desire to represent Guaymallén and the aspects that they themselves valued as part of their life stories.
Natalia Mercery, the chosen one, was the owner of phrase No. 5. Photo: José Gutiérrez / Los Andes
The identity of the winner was only known on Friday night, during the municipal festival.
The queen of the Guaymallén Harvest is Natalia Mercery, 35 years old, mother of three boys
and manager of solidarity projects.
In the internet voting Natalia
was only identified by sentence No. 5.
Not even her family knew what her opinion was, or at least, that's what several candidates said who said that the municipality chose one of the many phrases that each applicant wrote in response to a previous exam to be pre-qualified.
"I consider that I have many positive aspects of my personality and academic life experience that have prompted me to develop activities of empathy, value. I wish to be able to develop and promote my solidarity cultural management project (sic)", wrote Natalia
.
And that was the winning phrase.
Another applicant, the enigmatic No. 1, had written:
"The dream of learning and developing as a person was awakened in me in this party that celebrates the grape harvest. My wish is to be able to represent the department in the best way."
The phrases that the candidates to be elected Queen of the Harvest of Guaymallén 2023 wrote.
Candidate 3 had expressed her opinion:
"I would like to participate by presenting projects that benefit the cultural movement and wine workers. I would like to vindicate the figure of the grape harvest representative and that people stop commenting on the bodies of the candidates."
Once the secret about which was the most voted phrase was revealed, it became known that the new queen represented the town of Capilla del Rosario.
"I don't think that because of a physical aspect I have to be superior to anyone, so I am very happy with the choice. I hope to be, perhaps, at some point, a reference for other women," said Noelia, the winner.
The mayor decided that this queen should not wear a crown or scepter.
She was given a band with the name of the municipality and she was designated representative of Guaymallén, excluding the word queen.
Guaymallén Harvest Festival, at the Salcedo roundabout.
Photo: Jose Gutierrez / Los Andes
In the fifth sentence, the one with the most votes, Natalia recounted her desire to "develop and promote my solidarity cultural management project."
And she expanded: “With my husband we have a social and cultural project that is supportive.
What we do is manage cultural events.
We summoned musicians, writers and plastic artists, among others, and we put together an event to collect food and donations to distribute them in different deprived places”.
The discussion for the future of the election of the queen of the Harvest of Guaymallén, the most populated municipality of Greater Mendoza, began in 2021.
It was the only municipality in the province that dared to annul the contest that has been running for 80 years. tradition.
The controversial party had its climax this Friday, when the winner was announced.
Photo: Jose Gutierrez / Los Andes
The commune lost in Justice, but removed from the contest all elections for physical appearance.
"It is something anachronistic, retrograde and discriminatory, but we decided to comply with the Court's ruling," said Mayor Iglesias regarding the ruling that forced him to choose a queen.
And he concluded: "I want to tell Mendoza society that this process is definitive and irreversible. Beauty parades are over because all women are beautiful and you have to value not physical parameters but inner beauty. Today we had 19 representatives who are beautiful people".
Mendoza. Correspondent.
GL