At Saturday’s Miss Mexico 2026 Pageant, hosted by the Mexican Patriot Committee of Metro Detroit, the big winner of the night was Andrea Cuevas-Garcia, 19, who represented the city of Arandas in Jalisco, Mexico. Each contestant represented their state with a traditional dress. Cuevas-Garcia’s Ballet Folklorico-inspired brown and gold dress worn for the traditional dress portion was sourced and fitted by Luly Del Real on behalf of her non-profit CasArt Foundation. Cuevas-Garcia took the crown, but it was the dresses that took your breath away.
“Each state is a live symbol of cultural identity. For me, each dress represents our values, our customs, and is a source of pride for each region,” Del Real said.
When Elizabeth Gonzalez, pageant coach and chairperson of the Miss Mexico committee, asked Del Real to be a judge for the Miss Mexico pageant, Del Real knew she could give each girl more than a simple score. In her mind, the traditional dresses that the girls wore should be truly authentic and tell a story about the place where each girl was from.
Chelsea Morales-Magaña,17, won Miss Congeniality at the event. She knows about compelling stories. When she was younger, she asked her father what he would go to school for if he had been able to pursue an education. His response inspired Morales-Magaña’s dream to become a radiation therapist through Wayne State University. For her, this pageant meant a scholarship opportunity, but it was also a way for her to show pride in her identity.
With a smile, she points to the various elements of her dress. The frogs dancing along the hem of the dress allude to Guanajato, Mexico which stems from the indigenous Purepecha word “Quanaxhuato,” which translates to “place of frogs.” The peaks along the dress represented mountain ranges such as Sierra Madre Oriental and Cerro Agustinos.
Del Real told each of the six contestants a story about their traditional dresses. Isabel Vallejo, 19, from La Piedad, Michoacan wore a blue and green dress that was meant to be attention-getting.
“A long time ago, women would come from Spain and turn the heads of the local men. So this dress with the colors, the bows, the mask…it’s a way to draw back that attention and show pride in being from Michoacan,” Vallejo said. Vallejo attends Wayne State University and is in the Bachelor’s program for Applied Health Sciences.
Andrea Cuevas-Garcia, this year’s winner, and Ana Yadira Sanchez-Rangel, both hail from Jalisco, yet they wore very different styles.
“There’s another girl representing Jalisco as well. So she got the traditional Folklorico dress and I got the charra dress, so we were going to both represent different styles,” Sanchez-Rangel, 21, said. Her charra dress is based on attire worn by Mexican horsemen. It features short, embroidered jackets, wide sombreros, silk ties, and boots.
“The charra dress was made by a great Mexican artistano named Charreria Castillo,” Del Real said. “The Ballet Folklorico dress was made by a professor who knows about folklore and understands our traditional Mexican dresses. He makes everything with an authentic investigation into what each dress represents.”
The most elaborate dress of the night belonged to Perla Garcia, who won last year’s Miss Mexico pageant. Del Real designed and hand painted the dress herself.
“The dress represents the Monarch butterfly sanctuaries of Angangueo, Michoacan,” Del Real said.
The Monarch butterfly makes its yearly migration from Canada to Mexico – a 3,000 mile flight south to reach Mexico. The southbound migration is completed by one super generation, while the northward trek is an intergenerational relay. It takes several short-lived generations to reach Canada again. No one butterfly makes the full circle migration – from Canada to Mexico to Canada again. Generations of butterflies rely on each other to complete the full migration cycle.
In short, the dress is a stunning ode to migration.
“It’s something so beautiful and I think the Monarch butterfly represents us,” Garcia said. “I think it represents freedom.”
Perla Garcia passed on the crown to this year’s winner, Cuevas-Garcia. Miss Mexico 2026 will receive a $1,000 scholarship as well as the opportunity to represent the pageant at local events such as the Cinco de Mayo parade (also hosted by the Mexican Patriotic Committee of Detroit). She will attend community events and be a part of leadership opportunities as a cultural ambassador.
“Standing alongside so many talented and inspiring Mexican women was truly an honor,” said Cuevas-Garcia.
