THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2007
WORLD
7A
MISS UNIVERSE PAGEANT
Political gown deemed offensive
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEXICO CITY — Miss Mexico is toning down her Miss Universe pageant dress — not because it's too slinky or low-cut, but because its bullet-studded belt and images of hangings from a 1920s uprising have outraged Mexicans.
Milenio Diario de Tampico, Julio Nevero/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The floor-length dress is accented with crosses, scapulars and a sketch of a man facing a firing squad. Designers who helped select the dress from among 30 entries argued it represented the nation's culture and history, especially since Mexico City is hosting the pageant in May.
Miss Mexico, Rosa Maria Ojeda, poses with a floor-length dress, belted by bullets and accented by sketches of hangings during Mexico's Roman Catholic uprising in the 1920s. The dress has outraged Mexicans who said it was inappropriate for the Miss Universe pageant, the world's most important beauty contest.
Cut from a traditional natural cotton called manta, the dress depicts scenes from the 1926-1929 Cristero War, an uprising by Roman Catholic rebels against Mexico's secular government, which was imposing fiercely anti-clerical laws. Tens of thousands of people died.
"We wanted a dress that made you think of Mexico," Hector Terrones, who served on the selection committee, told La Jornada newspaper. "The design should grab people's attention and have impact without giving too much information."
But many Mexicans weren't happy about the history the dress evoked, especially at a moment of debate about the Catholic Church's role in politics and its stance against a Mexico City proposal to legalize abortion. Others said it glorified violence in a country where a battle between drug gangs has brought a wave of killings and beheadings.
Miss Mexico, Rosa Maria Ojeda, presented the dress March 29, showing off the billowing, hoop skirt adorned with sketches of Catholic rebels hanging from posts. Rosaries and scapulars hung from the bullet-studded, bandolier belt; a large cru
"It is inappropriate to use images of this Cristero war that cost so many lives and was so pointless," said Guadalupe Loaza, a contemporary Mexican writer.
cifix necklace, black halter top and wide-brimmed sombrero completed the outfit.
The gown's designer, Maria del Rayo Macias, told La Jornada that "we are descendants of Cristeros. Whether we like it or not, it's a part of who we are."
La Jornada columnist Jorge Camil said a dress was not the place to recount the event.
"It would be like Miss USA wearing a dress showing images of the Ku Klux Klan in the deep South, with their hoods, their burning crosses and beer cans," he wrote. "A beauty contest is very far from being the right place to vent political and religious ideologies."
Ojeda's representatives said in a statement that the dress would be modified due to "the concerns that have surfaced regarding the design." Pageant spokeswoman Esther Swan said the skirt would have ribbons and ruffles and no pattern, while the top would remain the same.
Mexican church officials also argued that using the war as a fashion statement was disrespectful to the thousands who died, some of whom were later named saints.
The conflict was the culmination of a century of bloody attempts to slash the power of the church, which was an arm of the Spanish colonial government for three centuries, that owned vast tracts of land and savagely persecuted rival religions.
The secular government that emerged from Mexico's revolution toughened anti-clerical laws, which set off a conflict in which churches and convents were shuttered, foreign priests were expelled and mobs sacked sanctuaries. Raiders responded by blowing up passenger trains and attacking government forces.
By the time the U.S. Embassy helped mediate an end to the violence in 1929, only a few hundred priests remained in Mexico.
"It's not right for Mexico, in an important international event like Miss Universe, to remember this sad and unfortunate fact of our history," Monsignor Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel told La Jornada. "This traditional outfit alludes to events that opened wounds."
JAPAN
Organized crime boss murders mayor
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO — The mayor of the Japanese city of Nagasaki was shot to death in a brazen attack Tuesday by an organized crime chief apparently enraged that the city refused to compensate him after his car was damaged at a public works construction site, police said.
Mayor Icho Ito, 61, was shot twice in the back at point-blank range outside a train station Tuesday evening, Nagasaki police official Rumi Tsuimoto said.
One of the bullets struck the mayor's heart and he went into cardiac arrest, according to Nagasaki University Hospital spokesman Kenzo Kusano. Ito died after emergency surgery, said Nagasaki prefectural police official Hiroki Ito.
The shooting was rare in a country where handguns are strictly banned and only five politicians are known to have been killed since World War II.
Tetsuya Shiroo, a senior member of Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest organized crime syndicate, was wrestled to the ground by officers after the attack and arrested, police said.
He later admitted to shooting Ito with a handgun with the intent to kill, Nagasaki chief investigator Kazuki Umebayashi said at a news conference.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for a "rigorous investigation."
It was the second attack in the last 20 years against a mayor of Nagasaki.
In 1990, Mayor Hitoshi
Motoshima was shot and seriously wounded after saying that lapan's emperor, beloved by rightists, bore some responsibility for World War II.
Tuesday's attack appeared to involve a more trivial matter, however.
Shiroo reportedly clashed with Nagasaki city officials in 2003 after his car was damaged when he drove into a hole at a public works site. He tried unsuccessfully to get compensation from the city after his insurance company refused to pay up, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.
Shiroo also sent a letter to broadcaster TV Asahi to protest recent money scandals linked to Ito, including hidden accounts and public works contracts, Kyodo reported.
Backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Ito was campaigning for his fourth term in office before Sunday's elections. He was an active figure in the movement against nuclear proliferation, heading a coalition of Japanese cities calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
"Mayer Ito had a strong and boundless passion for peace," said Sunao Tsuboi, leader of a survivors' group based in Hiroshima, a city also flattened by a U.S. atomic bomb in 1945.
Commonly known as yakuza. Japan's organized crime groups are typically involved in real estate and construction kickback schemes, extortion, gambling, the sex industry, gunrunning and drug trafficking.
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