Miss Colombia

"I am an artist because I design smiles on the faces of other human beings"

We saw Miss Colombia at the entrance to the gay beach last Saturday. She was standing in the narrow path between the beautiful but dilapidated coastal station, and the overgrown baseball diamond. In order to get there, you have to edge past one of those waist-height metal barriers the police put up when they want to control people on the street. The barrier has a no-entry sign on it. One gay, or maybe two, at the beginning of this summer, or maybe during the last, shifted the barrier just enough to let people through, but not enough to make the sign itself seem disused. It still seems to be there on purpose. Miss Colombia introduced herself and gave us a twirl and then introduced us to her bird, perched cheekily in her rainbow hair. She had many things with her, and seemed like she was going somewhere important.