Miss USA R’Bonney Gabriel to visit PH in December

Steve Angeles | TFC News Los Angeles Posted at Oct 15 2022 08:22 AM

It's been an even bigger rodeo for R’Bonney Gabriel of Houston.

About two weeks ago, this year's Miss Texas USA was crowned Miss USA 2022.

Since taking home the crown, the Fil-Am has been in Los Angeles, getting ready for the Miss Universe pageant in January.

"It has been extremely fun. We're very busy and we're just planning for [Miss] Universe and advocacy for Smile Train, Best Buddies and expanding my sewing workshops to give people opportunities. It's been a whirlwind but I love it," Gabriel said.

The 28-year old fashion designer is fairly new to the pageant world, taking on her first local pageant in 2020.

"It kind of just happened organically. I was never familiar with pageants and what they stood for I was more a model in the fashion world and I met somebody at a hair shoot that said 'hey, you should do a pageant.' I started diving in deeper looking at beauty queens, Catriona Gray and Pia [Wurtzbach] and former Miss USAs like Deshauna Barber and I love the way they can communicate and speak and be so dynamic and that's what really drew me into it."

She added, 'Because I was a little bit older, I felt a sense of urgency and I just hunkered down and focused because I said I have two years to do this whole thing."

She's the fourth Asian American and first Fil-Am to be named Miss USA, while Miss USA 1962 Macel Wilson, who is said to have grandparents from the Philippines, is considered the first Asian Pacific American Islander to win the crown.

The 2022 Miss USA pageant featured two other Pinays: Suzanne Perez of Miss New Mexico and Miss Hawaii Kiana Yamut.

For Gabriel, whose father hails from Manila, she takes even more pride in seeing Asian representation on the pageant stage.

"Miss USA, me, as well as Miss Teen USA, Miss America and Miss Universe are all Asian and that just makes me so proud of who I am, to share the story with the world, our culture, and let people know what we do, what we're all about. We're very hard working, and adds to the diversity. Representation is so important especially for young girls to look up and see and say, 'hey there's a woman that looks like me.' And I hope it inspires girls all over the world."

While Filipinos have celebrated her victory, the first few days of her reign were also met with allegations of pageant rigging.

"It definitely affected me," Gabriel admitted. "I was trying to stay away from the comments as much as possible and the negativity and at the end of the day, the allegations are just perception and there's a thorough investigation, proving them all wrong."

The next three months is expected to get even busier for Gabriel. On top of her preparations for Miss Universe, she will be taking on some humanitarian missions including a trip to the Philippines.

"We actually have a trip planned with Smile Train, which is a cleft based organization to do charity work, so I’m actually looking forward to going to the Philippines in December."

As she counts down the days until Miss Universe in New Orleans, she's been thankful for her fans, especially Filipinos.

"I'd like to say thank you all for the support. Maraming, maraming salamat sa lahat ng tulong ninyo (Thank you very much for all your help). I will be working very, very hard to not only represent Filipinos but Filipino Americans at the Miss Universe stage."

Gabriel will also be representing her Pinay roots in her threads, as she'll help design some of her clothes for Miss Universe.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/10/15/22/miss-usa-rbonney-gabriel-to-visit-ph-in-december