BY JON AMIO
SHE is the moment.
A few weeks ago, Iloilo City saw the crowning of Leon-native Alexie Mae Caimoso Brooks as the newest queen who will represent the city in Miss Universe Philippines (MUP) later this year. Since then, she has been a “trending topic” among pageant fans all around the country, and for the right reasons! We’ll run through them here one by one.
Beauty and brawn
Alexie was an athlete first – a good one at that – before she joined pageantry. She has competed in various sports events including track-and-field, high jump, long jump, heptathlon, and basketball.
The Ilongga stunner is also a standout member of the National University’s athletics team. In 2022, she was awarded as the “most valuable player” by the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP).
After showing her great athletic prowess in all seven heptathlon disciplines in the early 2022 trials, Alexie proceeded to compete in the 31st Southeast Asian Games held in Hanoi, Vietnam. She was only around 19 or 20 at the time.
“It’s always been a childhood dream for me so I started at a young age and at the same time I always want to prove to myself that I could do more, I could do better. Not putting a limit whatever it is. Just be limitless and hopefully you get to where you wanted to be or far from that,” Alexie said.
From kaings to the crown
Alexie’s dedication in life can be traced back to her early life.
She was raised alone by her grandmother whom she fondly calls “Lola Basing” in Barangay Balud, Leon, Iloilo. When she was in high school, she helped her lola sell vegetables at the Iloilo Terminal Market, or “Super,” in Iloilo City.
In her interview with Panay News columnist Erwin ‘Ambo’ Delilan, the 22-year-old beauty queen recalls her kargadora days where she would carry “kaings of kamatis” at Super.
“Kinahanglan indi gid mahulog ang mga kaing bangud kon mahulog, pusa gid ang mga kamatis,” Alexie told Delilan, adding that such experience taught her to seize and take care of every opportunity that comes her way.
Androgynous, black, bold, beautiful
Alexie was no stranger to bullying because of her skin color. She even shared that some of her bullies would throw rocks at her when she was a kid, which explains why she developed a penchant for running fast, a trait that soon revealed to launch her athletic career.
Throughout the years, the Filipino-American heptathlete has learned to love and accept her physical appearance. Alexie also embraced both her masculine and feminine traits. In fact, she prides herself as the “first androgynous, black Ilonggo woman” who will represent Iloilo in MUP.
Representation matters.
Alexie shared that she first dreamt of being a beauty queen when she saw on screen Miss Universe 2010 4th Runner-up and Binibining Pilipinas Universe 2010 Maria Venus Raj, who is also dark-skinned like her.
According to Alexie, there was something that lit up in her when she saw someone who has the same skin color as her, representing the country on international stage. That is when she started dreaming of becoming Miss Universe, which, with her Miss Iloilo win, is not far from happening.
In her Instagram post, Alexie wrote: “As the first black, androgynous Ilonggo woman to represent Iloilo, I turn childhood dreams into reality.”
That childhood dream paired with her values of self-love and authenticity makes the Alexie brand, something to look forward to on the MUP stage.
‘Gamechanger’
One of Alexie’s missions as she takes on the national stage is to be a “gamechanger.”
She made this clear in one of her interviews after the coronation night, when she said: “I want to be a gamechanger. The [beauty] standard here is [that] the pretty girl [is] light-skinned, long hair, Barbie face…and I might be the opposite of it. I am a little bit masculine. I am a short-haired girl. I am a Black girl, and I’m completely somehow the opposite of what the pageantry world in the Philippines is looking [for]. The reason why I want to join is because I want to change the game.”
‘Abanse, Babae!’
The Leon native also wants to show through her performance that women can be multifaceted. “I want to show the people that women are not just soft. Women can be strong yet with grace and confidence,” Alexie said.
“In pageantry, they want someone who’s very sweet…sweet-spoken, gentle. For me, there are days when I come off so strong, and that’s because I went through a lot in life. You don’t expect someone speak gently and talk softly knowing that their background was really rough,” the Ilongga queen added.
Alexie is truly the moment. With her wit, beauty, story, and personality, Iloilo has a strong contender for this year’s MUP pageant. Not to jinx anything but we’ll all be there when Iloilo gets its second MUP crown!/PN
