Miss Panama speaks at UN

Miss Panama 2018 , Rosa Montezuma , gave her first speech at a UN panel for the World Day of Indigenous People

With a speech on the empowerment of indigenous women, Miss Panama 2018, Rosa Montezuma , today opened the panel "Migration and mobility of indigenous people," in commemoration of the World Day of Indigenous People at the United Nations Organization, In New York.

The Panamanian representative for Miss Universe, a native of the Alto Cabellero community, in the Ngäbe-Buglé district, began her speech by speaking in her native language and then continuing in Spanish.

"On this day I want to express how honored I feel as an indigenous, young and female" of having been invited to this panel. "I am motivated by the desire to show the world that indigenous women are not fragile, we are worthy, we are capable, talented women, increasingly professional and dedicated to fight to show who we are," said Rosa, dressed in a yellow nagua, traditional Ngäbe dress, of which he also referred in his speech.

"This nagua that I wear today is not just a dress,  it is a symbol of my identity, that of my Ngäbe people that exhibits the art of its making, but even more so of the inheritance that generation after generation maintains as an expression of traditional knowledge of the Ngäbe woman’’.

The model, 25 years old, accompanied the nagua with necklace and earrings of chaquira. She also wore the Miss Panama 2018 band .

" Indigenous peoples migrate from the countryside to the city, over all young people, looking for opportunities," he said.

Rosa concluded her speech with greetings to Panamanians and "to those of my region Ngäbe-Buglé " and she exhorted so that the high value to the contributions to the society of the indigenous towns is recognized