MANILA -- (UPDATED/CORRECTED) Reina Hispanoamericana Filipinas 2023 Michelle Arceo is on her way to Santa Cruz, Bolivia where the pageant is held every year. As the Reina Hispanoamericana pageant focuses on celebrating Hispanic heritage, language and culture, only the countries with historical ties with Spain are allowed to compete.

Wearing a modern Filipiniana textured terno designed by Russ Cuevas and styled by Patrick Henry Mergano, Areceo looked fresh and radiant as she arrived at NAIA Terminal 1.

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This will be Arceo’s second international pageant, having placed as first runner-up in the Miss Environment International 2022 finals in Mumbai, India. She was also the Century Tuna Superbods first-runner up that same year.

Arceo, who was born in the Philippines and spent her teenage years in the US before coming back home, got her Latin blood from her father’s side.

In the days leading up to the competition, she is most excited about tasting the food, participating in the Carnaval, and meeting the girls, capturing moments with a camera that she bought specifically for this pageant.

“I’m really excited to try the local food there, but I’m also excited to meet the girls… I even bought a camera, that way I can take content of the other girls kasi for me the biggest thing was the language barrier so at least even if we physically can’t really speak, we can just enjoy our time together. Michelle Dee was very genius with her content online, and that was very inspiring… it kind of really inspired me to do photography,” Arceo said.

Arceo has been focusing on presenting that aspect of our Filipino history and culture on the pageant stage.

Since her coronation in July 2023, Arceo has been preparing non-stop for the finals, fully ready and bent on showcasing a performance that the country could be proud of.

“The most important quality I think is determination because you’re around so many beautiful women that do the same things as you, and you never know, maybe they work even harder than you. But I think with that, if you have the right mindset, anything is possible if you just believe in yourself especially, and I’ve worked so hard on this. I’ve had months to prepare and I know I’m ready,” she said.

Since the pageant’s inception in 1991, the Philippines has brought home one crown — Winwyn Marquez in 2017.

“I talked to Winwyn. She told me to really work on my dancing and my performance levels, but also most importantly, have fun in the competition. Because with a competition like Reina Hispanoamericana, they’re looking for someone who is very charismatic, someone who is easy to work with, and of course being here from the Philippines, I think it’s an advantage also, because we are very performance-like, so I’m very confident with myself," Arceo said.

The Reina Hispanoamericana coronation night will be on January 28 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia (January 29 in the Philippines).

(ERRATUM: An earlier version of this story had the wrong terno designer. We apologize for the error.)

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