WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., July 28, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- After an exhaustive three-month online search, Quepasa.com, one of the leading online social communities for young Latinos along with Latinas Illustrated, announced today that the Latinas Illustrated online model search will culminate in a runway show in Mexico City where a panel of judges made up of celebrities and industry leaders will pick the 13 winning models to appear in the 2009 Latinas Illustrated Swimsuit calendar.
"We are very pleased with the amount of international submissions we received from all over Latina America," says John C. Abbott, Quepasa's CEO. "This being the first year the contest is held online, we were thrilled to see submissions from Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and the Caribbean, which will make this a truly Pan-Latino calendar."
The contest launched in May on the Latinas Illustrated Community on Quepasa.com (www.Quepasa.com/latinas) and featured a vibrant, interactive viral community, including exclusive videos, model profiles, pictures, user-generated content, and behind-the-scenes clips from past calendar shoots from all over Latin America. For the past three months the Quepasa community has been voting for their favorite models to determine the 30 finalists that will participate in the runway show, which will be held in Mexico City for the first time.
"The response to the contest has been phenomenal," commented Jeff Valdez, Quepasa's Chairman. "We are very excited about the 200-plus models from Latin America and the U.S. that participated in the contest and can't wait to see who gets selected."
Thirty of the models with the highest votes will be invited to participate in the Mexico City runway show, along with 10 models hand-selected by the Quepasa and Latinas Illustrated staff. The models will fly in from all over including Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, and the U.S. and will compete before a panel of judges made up of celebrities and industry leaders who will select the 13 winners. The exclusive event will feature a celebrity Red Carpet plus a swimsuit and evening gown runway show, all taking place at Club VELVET in Mexico City on August 7th at 9:00pm.
"The finale is going to be a tremendous hit. There is so much excitement around it already. It's the first time we have held the finale in Mexico City, and what better place than in the capital of Latin America to pick the 13 most beautiful Latinas," said Jorge Cano Jr, Founder of Latinas Illustrated.
But the Latinas Illustrated contest is more than just about beauty, it is also about providing opportunity to Latinas as is the case with Azucena Lopez de Nava who became the host of the TV show, "Hola California," produced by COX COMMUNICATIONS, and Belky Arizala from Colombia, who is the spokes model of a clothing line in Milan.
The day following the event the 13 winning models will be whisked away to the most exotic beaches in Cancun and Playa del Carmen where they will spend the next 7 days shooting the 2009 Latinas Illustrated calendar.
About Quepasa Corporation: Quepasa Corporation (Nasdaq:QPSA), headquartered in West Palm Beach, FL (with offices in Los Angeles, Scottsdale, Miami and Hermosillo, MX), owns Quepasa.com, one of the world's largest, bicultural, Latino online communities committed to providing fun, competitive, interactive, and easy to use social tools, and rich multimedia content to embrace Latinos, and empower them to connect on-line, and share their interests, ideas, and activities.
The Quepasa Corporation logo is available at http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=5287
About Latinas Illustrated: For six consecutive seasons Latinas Illustrated has combined the beauty of Latin women, Latin beaches, and its people to create a unique product: The Latinas Illustrated Calendar.