Cristina Matias: Miss Philippines 1959
…Sampaguita matriarch Mrs. Dolores H. Vera pins corsage on Christie at an affair of the movie company. Looking on is Pepito Vera Perez.
The March 4, 1959 issue of Kislap Graphic featured on its cover Cristina Matias wearing her college uniform, Philippine Women’s University. The cover story was penned by Tarrosa Subido, ‘Young Queen with a problem.’
As reigning Boys Town Miss Philippines, Christie as she was nicknamed, was supposed to represent the country in the Miss Universe beauty pageant in Long Beach, California. But PWU, where she was a member of the Bayanihan Dance Troupe, frowned on its students wearing bathing suit in public, especially in an event ‘sponsored by a beauty products promoter and swimsuit manufacturer.’
In the end, Miss Matias opted not to join the pageant.
She was actually reluctant to join the Miss Philippines search but those behind the contest were persistent. They talked to Christie’s parents, Florentino Matias, a faculty member of Francisco College, and Mrs. Matias (part-German) ‘just a plain housewife.’
In her Kislap Graphic article, Tarrosa Subido wrote that Mrs. Matias worried about the huge expenses in joining the pageant, but she was assured the winner would be chosen by a prestigious panel of judges, not through ballots. But the couple was willing to spend for worthwhile things like education and travel for their children. Christie studied at Santa Escolastica from kinder to high school. For college, she enrolled at PWU.
As fate would have it, the reluctant Miss Cristina Matias emerged as the popular winner, proclaimed Miss Philippines 1959.
This columnist sees Christie hearing Mass at Santuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park, Makati. But perhaps readers, or Miss Matias herself, could update Remember When? on her activities these days. — RKC
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