Miss Alamo embraces role with a determined attitude

When Maile Pino found out she won Miss Alamo, she couldn’t believe it.

“My auntie was so happy for me, and I would just said, oh my gosh, I can’t believe I did that,” Pino said, “I’m more of a quiet person. I just keep to myself. I don’t really like all that attention.”

Despite feeling completely out of her comfort zone, she embraces her new role as Miss Alamo with a determined attitude. For her, it is a chance to inspire others, especially the younger generation, to pursue education and live their lives to the fullest.

“My main role of Miss Alamo is to advocate for our younger youth and for mental health and health awareness and substance abuse awareness, to really help our people because I’ve seen that the numbers of drugs and alcohol have really increased, especially what happened during Covid here. We got hit so hard,” Pino said.

At just 23 years old, she has experienced a lot of tragedy and faced her fair share of challenges, but she said the values her family has instilled in her have helped her continue her life with a positive mindset.

“I lost my dad and both my paternal grandparents. Then last year, in December, I lost my mom,” Pino said, “So basically, I don’t have parents or grandparents, and I have never met my maternal grandparents.”

She looks up to her grandparents, who raised her. They were both long-time educators, and her grandfather was also a pastor.

“They did a lot of teachings, and I learned a lot. There are two choices, you can sit down and feel sorry for yourself, or you can go on and enjoy your life, and I choose to go on and not just mope around because I don’t want to waste my time and energy on that,” Pino said “Just as long as you remain strong with prayer, with God, and continue on with your life. Because life, it’s sad to say, but life goes on. Life waits for nobody. It does not pause. It keeps going on every single day, and you have to live with it.”

In 2019, Pino graduated from the Alamo Navajo School as the valedictorian of her class. After high school, she went on to Fort Lewis in Colorado and earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration in December 2022.

She loved the independence of college but wanted to return home to contribute to her community. Since returning, she has been employed at Alamo Navajo School Board as the purchasing coordinator.

“This is where I’m from. So I want it to come back and help my people. And that’s what I’m doing,” Pino said.

The competition

To qualify to apply for Miss Alamo, you must be between 16 to 25 years old, single, not have children, be a good role model and positively represent the community. The qualifying applicants compete in a series of events.

Pino competed against two others in a fry bread-making contest on September 16.

“We made everything from scratch, built our own fire, chopped the wood, and we prepared the dough.

“And we were on a time limit. It was 45 minutes to make the fry bread and like, it was like 15 minutes to prepare the dough and 15 minutes to prepare the fire.” Pino said.

Then, a few days later, they had a pageant at the Alamo Community Center. Competitors wore traditional outfits, gave speeches, shared their talents and answered questions from the judges.

“The other two girls sang in our language, in Navajo, but I presented the Navajo cake, which was my traditional talent. I prepared a Navajo cake from scratch, from underground, and explained what the meaning was behind the Navajo cake,” Pino said.

Then came the prepared speeches about why they wanted to be Miss Alamo. Pino said many praised her speech and said it was touching, emotional and inspiring.

“And then finally the judges, did their thing, added up everything, and we found out who the winner was,” Pino said, “It’s a small community, so everyone knows everybody, and they seemed like they were excited when I won.”

Pino said she is happy representing her community and looking to the future. She is excited about her Miss Alamo role.

“I’m really looking forward to being with the people, speaking out and just talking to the people, and enjoying being with them, socializing with them, because this is all new to me. It’s very new to me. And I’m ready for the challenge,” Pino said.

In the coming months, she will present at the college career fair, give out candy for Halloween, and make plans to support her community over the holidays.

She also plans to return to college to earn her master’s degree.