The Women Behind Pageants: Stella Marquez Araneta

"In every man's success or failure is a woman", as the saying goes. This holds true in a pageant. Oh, not necessarily the pageant's contestants but the director of the pageant. In the next few weeks, this site will be featuring some of the most powerful women behind a pageant; be it local or international. To kick off the series, let's take a look at the woman behind the national pageant in the Philippines -- Stella Marquez Araneta of the Binibining Pilipinas pageant.

Stella Marquez Zawadski Araneta or commonly referred to as Madame Stella Marquez Araneta was born on June 17, 1937 in Tomaco Narino, Colombia. She won the national title of Miss Colombia in 1959 and represented her country to the Miss Universe 1960 pageant in Miami Beach, Florida. She placed as semi-finalist (Top 15. The crown was garnered by the hometown-candidate Linda Bemment of USA.

 Inspired by her semi-final placement in the Miss Universe 1960, she was handpicked to represent Colombia in the maiden-edition of the Miss International pageant in Long Beach California, a pageant which she won. She bested 51 other ladies from different countries including Iona Pinto of India as First Runner Up. It should be noted that Iona Pinto's became the highest placement that India had in the Miss International pageant.

Her exposure as Miss International paved the way for her to meet Filipino businessman Jorge Araneta. They eventually got married and settled in the Philippines. In 1964, she organized Binibining Pilipinas which sends out the winner to Miss Universe. The first winner was Myrna Panlilio. In that same year, Gemma Cruz (Miss Philippines 1963) won the Miss International title, the first internation crown for the Philipines. The next year, Binibining Pilipinas officially acquired the Miss International franchise from the City of Manila.

Madame Stella has been the director/owner of the Binibining Pilipinas Charities Inc., for more than fifty years. Whilst marred with a lot of controversy, she produced eight major titles for the Philippines; 3 Miss Universes and 5 Miss Internationals. She also produced several crowns from minor pageants including Miss Supranational by Mutya Johanna Datul, Miss Globe by Lorraine Ann Colis among others.