A heart of gold and a crowning achievement

Victoria Gonzalez graduated from UTRGV last spring with a degree in biology and has since become Miss Fiesta San Antonio 2019. With the title comes an internship in which she serves as an ambassador for the Fiesta San Antonio celebration.

Fiesta San Antonio is a large festival that takes place each April.

“It celebrates San Antonio’s diversity and cultures,” said Amy Shaw, executive director of the Fiesta San Antonio Commission, in a telephone interview last Thursday. “It’s every part of the community celebrating our history, what we have in common and what makes us different.”     

The history of Fiesta San Antonio began in 1891 as an event to “honor the memory of the heroes of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto.”

“[It] is something that has been going on in San Antonio since 1891,” Shaw said. “It started with the Battle of Flowers Parade and it has just kind of grown organically over the last 128 years to where we have a hundred-plus nonprofits putting on a hundred-plus events over the course of 11 days for a hundred-plus good causes.”

Economically, Fiesta San Antonio has a large impact that brings in hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

“The economic impact of Fiesta San Antonio is a very, very big deal in San Antonio,” Shaw said. “Economic impact is $340 million every year, which is probably about the same as maybe two or three Final Four tournaments. It’s bigger than the Indianapolis 500 festival, it’s bigger than the Kentucky Derby festival.”

The Miss Fiesta internship serves as a platform for young women to serve the community, execute a community service project and to contribute to other acts of philanthropy. 

According to Shaw, Miss Fiesta is selected on the basis of academic achievement, community service record and, most important, a fully developed project proposal including a timeline and budget. 

Initially a beauty pageant, Miss Fiesta has evolved into an internship in which the recipient executes a community service project of her choosing.

In addition to the project proposal, the application process also required Gonzalez to submit three letters of recommendation, answer essay questions, and information regarding extracurricular activities, volunteerism, community and job experience.

“You write a proposal about an original community service project that you would like to implement in the city,” Gonzalez said.

Her project aims to “[provide] personal care and hygiene items to children in need,” which will thereby prevent illness, disease and will enhance self-esteem.

The children will receive items such as toothbrushes, toothpaste and hand sanitizer. She intends to work alongside local schools to “ensure a continuous supply of these items are available to students in need.”

She chose to base her project on health and wellness due to her background in biology.

“It could be anything you choose, but for mine, I chose health because my degree was in biology, pre-med biology, so that’s what I’m passionate about.”

During her time at UTRGV, she was a member of the Delta Zeta Sorority and also volunteered at the Edinburg Children’s Hospital.

A San Antonio native, Gonzalez said the culture shock she received when moving to the Rio Grande Valley was the only obstacle she faced during her college experience.

“I didn’t know anyone,” she said. “I was moving from a big city, San Antonio, I lived there my whole life, to the Valley, which is very different, so I really experienced culture shock for the first month or so.”

Despite this, she overcame her hindrance due to the welcoming nature of the community.

“Trying to get immersed in that community and [embracing] that environment was kind of a struggle but, you know, everyone there is so friendly and welcoming,” Gonzalez said. “They will literally welcome you into their home and that’s just the culture, that’s just how it is. That’s what really made me feel at home. Because of that, I was able to be successful there and also I got really involved on campus.”

Gonzalez is thankful for her professors and experience at UTRGV.

“I wouldn’t change anything about [my college experience at UTRGV], I loved every part of it,” she said. “Also, I would love to thank all the professors who helped me succeed.

“They’re so great, they really care a lot and they’ll take the time out of their schedules to meet with you, to give you advice, write however many letters of recommendation you ask for. I wouldn’t even be here for it weren’t for that.”   

In addition to being Miss Fiesta, Gonzalez currently works as an academic peer coach at Palo Alto College in San Antonio.

“Basically, what I do is I help students in high-risk courses,” she said. “I help them be successful in these in courses by connecting them to either tutoring resources or even things that can affect their attendance like food, housing security [or] financial aid, things people don’t really think about outside of the classroom.”