On the Disqualification of Carnival Queen Candidate Saida Prieto

Regular readers will recall that it was with some fanfare that it was announced that Saida Prieto, the carnival queen candidate who was horrendously burnt when her costume caught fire back in 2013, would be presenting again as a candidate for carnival queen this year.

This she did, representing the newspapers Diario de Avisos and EL ESPAÑOL, in a costume designed by Santi Castro, aptly entitled “Mi sueño, una realidad” (My dream, a reality).

Given the circumstances, there were possibly many who could not imagine her not winning, but Saida's name was not amongst the winners at this year's gala. To be honest, it was probably always going to be a case of "damned if you do, damned if you don't", with claims that the result had somehow been fixed either way, however, we now learn that Saida was actually disqualified for having gone over her alloted time during the gala. 

There's more controversy, as both Saida herself and Santi Castro claim that they were not directly informed of the disqualification and only found out themselves via the press.

In an interview, Saida does admit that she went the wrong way after leaving the turntable. It certainly looks like she is having difficulty manoevering the costume, which weighed over 200 kilos (according to EL ESPAÑOL) and 400 kilos (according to Saida).

Saida is quoted as saying, "I've fought, I've got my life back, but for some this is not enough; Santa Cruz town hall has tried to humiliate me." It would be sad for the story to end in this way, but perhaps instead, as has already been commented, Saida was "Undoubtedly the QUEEN of the night and an example of overcoming." She was already a winner.

Saida Prieto Hernández | Gala de elección de la Reina | SC de Tenerife 2018