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On one wall at Arempas, the Venezuelan restaurant in downtown Salt Lake City, there is a line of portraits of women wearing tiaras — past holders of the title Miss Venezuela who were later crowned Miss Universe and Miss World.
Seven Miss Venezuela winners also have won Miss Universe, second only to the United States — a sign that beauty pageants are as important a part of Venezuelan culture as baseball (its most popular sport), and that Venezuelans’ interest in Miss Universe is comparable to Americans’ excitement for the Super Bowl.
This year, Venezuelans — particularly those in Utah — will be rooting for two Miss Universe contestants, because Noelia Voigt, the first Miss Utah USA to win Miss USA in 50 years, is Venezuelan American.
“I want to be very clear: I am not trying to be Miss Venezuela. I am very much Miss USA,” Voigt told The Salt Lake Tribune, a few days after winning the pageant. “But of course, I think it’s important to honor my roots. It’s part of who I am.” Voigt visited Arempas at 350 S. State St. on Saturday — a full-circle moment, she said, as that’s the spot where she chose to celebrate her Miss Utah USA victory.
Dozens of restaurant patrons approached Voigt on Saturday, to greet her or take photos of her in her Miss USA sash and tiara. She pointed to the beauty queens’ wall, and said she hoped to be added to it someday.
Venezuelans have the fastest population growth among U.S. Latinos, according to Pew Research, with a 236% increase from 2010 to 2022, taking the count to 815,000 nationally. According to the website Caracas Chronicles, about 20,000 Venezuelans live in Utah, so some of that culture has permeated — and Voigt, who was crowned Miss USA on Sept. 29, represents that mix.
Voigt, 24, was born in Sarasota, Florida, to a Venezuelan mother and an American father. They met in Venezuela, when he played for a baseball team there, Las Águilas del Zulia. She said she grew up with dashes of Venezuelan traditions — like having a big party on Christmas Eve, and eating 12 grapes before midnight on New Year’s Eve.
One more Venezuelan tradition she said she did regularly: Watching the Miss Universe pageant on TV.
“I just always loved watching the women up on stage, and just how strong and competent they were, and how beautiful they were, and just how well-spoken,” Voigt said. “I really wanted to try it.”
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Miss USA Noelia Voigt at Arempas in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.
A beauty queen at 16
Despite the popularity of beauty pageants in Venezuela, Voigt said her mother didn’t allow her to compete in them as a kid.
“You kind of question if it’s a good thing for a young girl to get involved in, if it’s not like a really solid, positive community service-based sort of organization,” she said. “So my mom was protecting me in a way from potentially feeling insecure [if I lost].”
Voigt’s interest didn’t go away, she said, and at 16, her family gave in. Voigt entered the Miss Sarasota Teen USA pageant, and won.
“I’m very unrelenting,” she said. “When I set my mind on something, I am going to work my butt off to get there. … And I knew I wanted to compete in pageants. That desire never went away.”
She said she understands that some people see beauty contests as negative or uncomfortable institutions — but she finds meaning in what she does, by focusing on the healthy aspects of pageants, such as their philanthropic purpose.
“I’m not against the swimsuit competition,” she said, discussing what’s often the most controversial portion of beauty contests. (It’s something Miss USA’s rival organization, the Miss America competition, discontinued in 2018.)
“I feel that it is a great opportunity for women to feel empowered on stage and it is a long-running tradition,” Voigt said. “So I personally love it.”
Utah ties
On her Instagram feed, Voigt can be seen cooking chicken with rice with her grandma, practicing her catwalk in her parent’s living room (with Giselle Reyes, a pageant trainer who is iconic in Venezuela), and dancing in traditional Venezuelan attire in front of the Utah State Capitol.
Voigt moved to Utah in April to compete in Miss USA, but said she has already developed a strong connection with the state, as she admires the effort of the government to provide resources to immigrants.
“One of the things that drew me to the state was the fact that there is such a large Venezuelan community here, and I always wanted to be able to represent a state where I felt like I could freely and openly advocate for that community,” she said. “I just love Utah and I can’t wait as Miss USA to make a large impact not only across the country, but especially in the state of Utah.”
Voigt advocates for immigration rights and reform, and champions for the prevention and awareness of teen dating violence. She volunteers with One Love Foundation, to educate young people about warning signs and dangers of toxic relationships. She said she wishes that such training could be incorporated into school curriculums across Utah.
She also wrote “Maddie The Brave,” a children’s book about bullying — an issue, she said, that goes “hand in hand with dating violence.”
“I actually was in an abusive relationship when I was younger — and a lot of my friends were at the same exact time. So we were all really struggling,” she said. “And we just didn’t understand why we were going through what we were going through, and how to get out of it.”
She is now out of that relationship, and said she hopes others can recognize the signs she missed if they are in harmful relationships.
While those are the main causes Voigt supports, she said she also hopes to use her platform to promote the causes of her fellow Miss USA contestants.
For now, though, Voigt has a hectic schedule. She had a short amount of time to come home to Utah after winning Miss USA, and her next pageant is only weeks away: Miss Universe, to be held in El Salvador on Nov. 18.
It’s there that she likely will meet her Venezuelan counterpart, Diana Silva.
“I’m just excited. I hope that people decide to support her and [me],” Voigt said. “I’m not into tearing women down, or comparing one to the other. I think that we have all worked so hard to get to where we are.”
Alixel Cabrera is a Report for America corps member and writes about the status of communities on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.
