Photo of the Week

Detour this week....I purchased a book at the Friends of the Panama Canal Museum Silent Auction this past reunion called The Burnt Smell of History - 8th Panama Art Biennial published by the Fundacion Arte y Cultural - Panama. What a different book. A bit anti American, but otherwise informative. The photo above I have posted is in the center of the book and has a title of; Senorita Panama Y Miss Canal Zone photographed by Carlos Endara - 1930 who was a well known photographer in Panama for many years. Originally from Ecuador Carlos adopted Panama as his home in 1886 and passed away in 1954.

After searching on the Internet, I found out the names of these two girls. Senorita Panama's name is Melinda Boyd and Miss Canal Zone's name is Mary Dean. I will dig some more for more information about Mary Dean, but Melinda won the title of Miss Latin America in 1930, the same year this photo was taken. The contest was held in Miami, Florida. I found another photo on-line of the contestants at the contest in Miami and is shown below. Senorita Panama is standing in the back row and Miss Canal Zone is seated to the right on the bottom row. I have yellow arrows pointing at them.

The above photo is a super classic photo showing the good relationship of Panama and the Canal Zone during this time.

Here is the write-up for the photo below:

Miss America Latina 1930
Representing Panama Melinda Boyd and the Mary Dean Canal Zone

In the photo.
The candidates pose with the authorities of Miami. Standing to the left Melinda Boyd Miss Panama, Violeta Gómez Briceño Miss Chile, Sitting, Julia Salazar Loria Miss Costa Rica, Haydée Morales Miss Nicaragua, Sara Chacón Miss Ecuador, Emma MacBride Miss Peru, Irma Pizarro Aráoz Miss Bolivia and Mary Dean Miss Zona of the Panama Canal.

In the end the winner of the contest was Miss Panama Melinda Boyd, a beauty of 20 years of age and 1.67m. tall and long black hair, the second place went to Julia Salazar Loria of Costa Rica 18 years and 1.62m. of height and the third place was obtained by Miss Nicaragua Haydée Morales.

The representative of Costa Rica, Julia Salazar refused to compete in a bathing suit and said that "it is not appropriate for a girl to wear a bathing suit if it is not to be in the water".