Everyone knows what Miss America looks like — she’s beautiful, fit, wears a huge smile. And, until 2001, she was almost always white, but for a handful of black winners.
That changed when Angela Perez Baraquio became the first Asian-American to take the crown in 2001.
Today, the 38-year-old mother of four is vice principal of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic elementary and junior high school in Gardena, where she has worked less than a year. And she just released a book about her experience, “Amazing Win, Amazing Loss: Miss America Living Happily Even After” that she will promote for the first time Sunday at a 2 p.m. book signing at the Cerritos Library.
Baraquio, a life-long Catholic, describes the book as a faith-based inspirational memoir, and it reads much like a positive, first-person diary covering the lead-up to her win, her experience appearing on a hugely popular nationally televised beauty pageant the year of the terrorist attacks in America, and the hectic months of traveling that followed.
She also shares her family’s history, dwelling thoughtfully on the 2006 suicide of her younger brother, Albert.
“The theme of the book is to dream big because everything is possible,” Baraquio said. “When people find out my parents are immigrants, and that I’m from a family of 10 kids, they’re surprised at my journey.”
The book includes sections dedicated to her beliefs about the ethics of participating in a swimsuit competition as a Catholic, her romance with a college sweetheart who became her husband, and her thoughts on losing, “keeping it real,” and the power of focused determination.
Beauty contests came to Baraquio as a way to supplement and further her education and teaching career. The two contests she joined right after high school netted her $14,000 in college scholarships — a huge boost for a girl coming from a big working-class family. She used the money toward her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She went on to get her master’s degree in educational administration, using Miss America pageant scholarships to pay for it.
But her career began in Hawaii, teaching children in kindergarten through third grade as well as physical education. She also worked as a basketball, volleyball and track coach for older students — some of whom would ultimately dare her to try out for Miss Hawaii in 2000. The Miss America Pageant followed in 2001, when Baraquio was 24 — the last year she was eligible to compete.
“I was totally behind the curve,” she said of entering the competition. “I was teaching, just chilling. My students were so excited. I told them I’d help them every day on basketball skills if they tried out for the team. I was juggling teaching, coaching, doing community service, work. It took a lot of time management.”
Baraquio was born in Hawaii as the eighth child of Claudio and Rigolette Baraquio, but she said her story begins in the Philippines, where her parents met, married and had three children before moving to the United States in 1970. All 10 kids ultimately graduated college, and the family has become prominent in Hawaii, where the successful sisters have their own local reality show.
“As a young Filipina girl growing up in Hawaii, I always watched Miss America on TV, but never felt that it was an achievable dream because no winner ever looked like me or slightly resembled me at all,” she said.
“When I won, people came up to me and said, ‘I’m Thai … I’m Japanese … I’m Korean… and I’m so proud of you.’ I thought: ‘I’m Filipina, I don’t get it.’ Then it hit me that I was the first and only Asian Miss America ever.”
She also happened to be the first teacher to win Miss America. Her platform for the year became “Character in the Classroom: Teaching Values, Valuing Teachers,” and she logged 20,000 air miles each month delivering her message to make “character education” part of core curriculum. She believed a program like that could help prevent violence in schools.
Since winning, she has married her college sweetheart, Tinifuloa Grey, founded the Angela Perez Baraquio Education Foundation, traveled the country as a motivational and political speaker, and appeared on numerous television programs.
“People believe in overnight success but my platform was character education, and it was a six-year process for me,” Baraquio said. “So I talk about the keys to success and the will to win. I talk about the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
“My biggest loss was my younger brother. As difficult as it was, it was necessary and cathartic to talk about all those things. I cried at the computer.”
