Liberal itself has been known to be a Hispanic majority city, but still manages to be extremely diverse and welcoming to all cultures. Seward County Community College Transfer advisor, Janeth Vazquez wanted to highlight the diversity in Liberal this past Sunday, October 14, by hosting a multicultural fashion show.

Originally, the fashion show was apart of Hispanic Heritage Month but Vazquez has pursued the importance of diversity in all of the events she has organized. The Multicultural Fashion Show was open to the public and contestants ranged from a few months old to 18 years and even older. From a paletero, to a Native American Indian, the outfits brought to the stage showed how proud the contestants are of their culture.

The Folklorico dresses were the most popular among the younger participants. A young Selena Quintanilla received the highest appraisal from the audience.

Anaylee Pizano decided to dress as Selena because “Selena likes sparkles and I like sparkles.”

Another one of the fan’s favorite was Liberal natives, Pamela Rosales and her son, Ian. The duo stole the show with Ian’s paletero costume. The hard work paid off when Ian won first place and a $50 gift certificate in his age group.

Many of the young ones were shy and timid when they first showed up backstage. After their time to shine, the kids had a leap of confidence.

Vazquez wanted to bring back former contestants from the Cinco de Mayo pageant held this past May, since most of them are still in Liberal. In the pageant, a new segment was the presentation of a cultural costume. Freshmen Cindy Aguilar, Anali Chacon, and Bianca Herrera along with former SCCC student, Bianca Prieto and Liberal High School senior, Maria Camacho luckily still had their cultural costumes. The girls had their time on the stage once again and the audience quickly recognized them all.

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Rubi Gallegos

During the fashion show, Isiah Vega won the Audience Choice Seward, showcasing his campaign for the first Mexican-American President in 2050.

With the show being extremely girl-dominated, the boys received much of the attention. Freshman, Julian Avila won the most creative award of the entire show for his Dia De Los Muertos(Day of the Dead) costume.

“I was inspired by the movie Coco,” Avila said backstage while chatting with other participants. “There was so much work put into this costume. Everything was handmade and the makeup took two and a half hours but I loved every minute of it!”

There were only two other men in the show. Sophomore Chandler Harp and a new resident of the Liberal community, Ken Dixon.

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Ken Dixon, originally from Louisiana, moved to the Liberal area for a job opportunity for his wife. Dixon showcased his Cherokee Indian culture to a community with a traditional outfit worn by the tribe. Backstage, Dixon happily taught everyone about his culture. Being extremely open to questions, the participants all tuned into Dixon’s stories and teachings of the ways of a Cherokee Indian while waiting for their call. Standing out from the crowd, Dixon won the first place prize of $50.

In a Facebook post, Vazquez expressed her gratitude to the community, “For the first time, I think it was a great success. It’s a beautiful feeling to come together as one and showcase different cultures in our community,” Vasquez said. Despite the snowing and cold weather, much of the community still showed up to show their pride and love for their culture.

Sponsors of the event included: SCCC, Elite DJs Kansas, UFCW Local 2 and National Beef. There were raffles held for gift certificates to the following places: Wendy’s, El Super Pollo, Taqueria Chilangolandia, Viva México, El Gallo de Jalisco and Freddy’s.