Nicaraguan authorities on Tuesday banned two artists from painting a mural honoring the artist newly crowned Miss Universe 2023, Sheynnis Alondra Palacios Cornejo, the first Nicaraguan to win this competition.
The muralists from that country, Kevin Laguna Guevara and Oscar Danilo Parrilla Blandón, whose stage names are Vink Art and Torch Místico, reported on the social network Tik Tok that the authorities in their country had banned them from continuing to paint a mural in honor of Palacios . .
“The mural was canceled. People understood it as a political message,” wrote Torch Místico, while Vink Art explained that they “could not continue with the mural.”
Torch Místico also posted a photo on his Instagram account with the mural, which shows the face of the new Miss Universe, saying that they could not finish it.
“That was the end of the mural. We had the intention to complete it, we kept our word, but the authorities did not allow us to continue,” he explained.
According to the information, the artistic mural, created with the permission of the owner of a private property in the town of Estelí, 92 miles north of Managua, was erased with white paint.
The government of Managua, which celebrated the Nicaraguan’s triumph as Miss Universe 2023 on Sunday and also stressed that “Nicaragua celebrates with its queen!”, has not publicly commented on the mural.
Sheynnis Palacios, the first Nicaraguan to win the Miss Universe pageant.
Photo credit: Hector Vivas/Getty Images
Sheynnis Palacios, first Central American Miss Universe
The young woman, 23 years old, originally from the municipality of Diriamba in Carazo province, has a degree in social communication from the closed Jesuit Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in Managua, where she played volleyball. She is the first Nicaraguan and Central American to win Miss Universe, whose 2023 edition was held last Saturday in El Salvador.
Born on May 30, 2000, Sheynnis Palacios, before her coronation, worked as a presenter and presenter of the program “Understand your mind”, broadcast on Channel 11 of Nicaraguan television, which covers various mental health topics drawn from her personal experience in dealing with with anxiety.
She is the daughter of a single mother and sold cassava pieces with her mother’s family to finance her studies.
When they asked her, along with the other two finalists, if she could live in another woman’s shoes for a year, who would it be and why? Palacios mentioned the 18th-century English writer and thinker Mary Wollstonecraft, who is considered one of the pioneers of feminism.
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