10/26/2026
Erica Morin Betancourt ●1st Place🥇
🌼The crochet cempasuchil flowers in her corona and how the abuelitas in México loved to crochet back in the day, it was beautifully put together with floral pieces and steams.
🖤The matte black dress that represented the mourning or "Luto" that we keep when a loved one passes away.
In México traditionally you not only dress in black during the funeral, but depending how close are you to the person that died, you keep dressing in black for a year or more than that.
For example a cousin or extended family you will keep "Luto" dressing in black between 3-6 months and for inmediate family from 6 months to a whole year.
Many towns keep this tradition until now.
⚪️⚪️⚪️The pearls she wore as accessories in her necklaces and make up.
Erica said that pearls are a personal touch that
she always likes to add.
In México pearls represent tears used it as a bride, or if you give them as a gift they represent sadness, therefore if you see it in a poetic and artsy way, putting them on a catrina costume could make a connection about the many tears that we drop when someone dies and the sadness that we feel.
They also loved how the pearls on her lips looked as the teeth of the catrina exposed at all times.
💄The judges agreed on how they liked the concept of the makeup, oriented to detail and taking the risk of not doing the classic white make up, but still managing to give the aura of a catrina, and match perfectly her attire.
🦋 The butterflies that represented the souls of the ones that passed away.
🖐👗🧵🪡 The handmade additions to her black dress and alterations that she did, with black veil very associated with dead, was another point that for sure helped her.
🖤💀🥀 Her poise and elegance to present her role as a catrina (like the classic catrina character is presented in México), all these together crown her as the 1st place on the catrina contest 2026.
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👩⚖️👩⚖️👩⚖️👩⚖️📊✒️
We have a panel of judges, from different backgrounds:
✅ A teacher in our community that is very knowledgeable about ️Mexican traditions, building ofrendas and participating on día de mu***os events.
✅ ️A president of a National Hispanic Honor Society at TTU.
✅️️A local artist who's whole concept is about Mexican Folklor.
✅An artist and adjunct professor of TTU who earned her master of fine arts at the same institution.
They took decisions with a system of points where the results were very close this time, and the catrinas were only some few points apart.
They evaluated the headpiece, make up art,
make up originality, concept overall, risk and originality, meaning of the pieces,traditions,
traditional elements,authenticity, attire, presentation of the role catrina and the answers gave by the contestants to different kind of questions during the contest.
Thanks to everyone of you!👩⚖️👩⚖️👩⚖️👩⚖️
