Video: Behind The Scenes At The 2010 Miss Universe Pageant

By Elis Ortiz, with additional reporting by Reynaldo Casas

Por segunda vez desde 1991 en el concurso Miss Universo, the crown goes to Miss México! Wearing a gorgeous red gown in honor of México’s 200 years of independence, Jimena Navarrete made her country and Latinos everywhere proud.

The August 23rd event, live from Las Vegas, brought out beautiful gowns, smiles, and bods from all over the world. But as we’ve come to expect from a pageant representing the most beautiful women in the universe, las bellezas Latinas were right up front for all the honors. We don’t mean to brag, pero la verdad, hay que decirla!

We snuck in our correspondent Reynaldo Casas to find out what it’s really like among the Miss Universe contestants. Along with Tr3s VJ Carlos Santos, he got an exclusive interview with one of the top 10 finalistas (representando a la isla del encanto, Puerto Rico) Miss Mariana Vicente.

Mariana assured Carlos that although people may think the biggest beauty pageant in the world is superficial, it actually takes a lot of work and self determination. Esta es una experiencia that’s really about, “challenges, having no limitations, growing as a person, and having fun too.”

She made friends with many of the other chicas, learning how to communicate with each other, in spite of the variations in language. La reina de belleza boricua humbly stated, “win or don’t win, I just want to have really good memories of this.” For Mariana and all the other beauties of this special night, los buenos recuerdos are sure to last a lifetime.

El evento comenzó by introducing the contestants and their respective countries, showcasing elaborate and breathtaking national costumes. Miss Puerto Rico, Miss Colombia, Miss Guatemala, and of course, Miss México, were all part of the top 15 out of the 83 competing beauties. After an eye-popping swim wear competition where the top ladies showed off their cuerpazos in bikinis, to the sounds of Vegas’ own Viva Elvis, the top 10 were chosen. For this round, Puerto Rico, Guatemala and México still remained strong in the running.

Up next was the glamorous evening gown portion of the pageant, donde las chicas lucieron elegantes to the tune of John Legend at the piano accompanied by The Roots. Las damas made their way down the runway, while a pop up window appeared of them describing their gowns and why they chose each one. They all looked spectacular, pero ese vestido rojo de Miss México se veía increíble!

Después llegó la hora de anunciar las top 5, bringing it all down to Miss Ukraine, Miss Philippines, Miss Australia , Miss Jamaica, and Miss México. Each was asked to respond to a randomly selected question from the judges, the final test of poise and intelligence for the contestants.

Jimena, Miss México, answered eloquently in Spanish, hablando de la responsabilidad de los padres of teaching their kids and teens to employ family values in order to make smart and safe use of the internet.

As this portion was possibly the deciding factor for the win, nos sentimos un poco mal por la linda Miss Philippines, who was asked by one of the judges, actor William Baldwin, “What is one big mistake that you’ve made in your life, and what did you do to make it right?” She gave a vague (yet bubbly) respuesta that she’d never made a big mistake, somehow due to her confidence and the love of her family.

We’re sure she’s never done anything “major,” as she put it, but everyone makes mistakes and she could have picked any to give the judges some substance. Just sayin’!

Pero como dice Shakira, “lo hecho está hecho” and the crown couldn’t have fallen on a more well-rounded and beautiful head, que la de Miss México! She’ll have a full year to reign over the universe from her luxury NYC apartment, a scholarship to the NY Film Academy, y toda la ropa, joyas, y zapatos que pueda querer… Now that’s what we call a grand prize!

Felicidades a Jimena Navarrete, gran orgullo de México!

Who were your top picks for the Miss Universe crown? Let us know what you think in the comments or @MTV3!

Tags 2010, Carlos Santos, interview, Jimena Navarrete, Mariana Vicente, Miss Universe, Video, Videos