After Trump drama, focus shifts to Miss USA contestants

For weeks the Miss USA pageant has been overshadowed by comments made by Donald Trump denigrating Mexican immigrants. But as women from across the country take the stage tomorrow, organizers hope the focus will finally shift to the talented women taking part in the 63rd annual contest.
"We're really making this a celebration about the women. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them," said Paula Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organization.
Trump, a real estate developer, television personality and now-Republican presidential candidate, owns the Miss Universe Organization which produces the Miss USA pageant scheduled to take place on July 12 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

His larger-than-life personality has often served to help publicize the pageant. But this year comments he made blaming Mexican immigrants for bringing drugs and crime to the US sparked widespread fallout against the entrepreneur's business empire, including the contest.
The Spanish-language broadcaster Univision said it would not broadcast Miss USA and cut ties with Trump. NBC dropped its pageant telecast although cable and satellite channel Reelz stepped in to broadcast the show. Many celebrities tapped as judges, performers or hosts pulled out of the pageant, although none of the contestants did.
Absent big-name performers, the focus will be on the women and their stories. For a pageant that likes to tout cultural diversity there will be a segment highlighting the many contestants who are first-generation Americans and one who's an immigrant, Shugart said.

"We've always been about cultural diversity, and we're a reflection of the US," she said.

One of the women in the spotlight will be Anea Garcia from Rhode Island.
Garcia was raised by her grandmother who emigrated to the US from the Dominican Republic. When Garcia was 13, her grandmother lost her job. Over the next seven years, they were homeless off and on, often sleeping in their car in a Wal-Mart parking lot.
"There were times where I couldn't shower, or we'd wake up hungry and go to sleep really hungry, but I would go to school early to eat and pack some snacks in my backpack to bring for my grandmother and I," she said. "I definitely had to grow up faster.