This vintage real photo postcard features Reina Nieves Gonzalez, the 1919 Queen of the Pangasinan Carnival. Pangasinan is a coastal province in the Philippines. Winning the contest was a big deal. There was no national carnival in Manila in 1919 due to ongoing World War I. The Pangasinan Carnival drew national attention. It was very well attended. Reina was only fourteen years old when she was crowned Queen. Her beauty was admired throughout the country. Real Photo postcards of Nieves, such as this one, became very popular in Manila and throughout the country. Her photos even outsold the images of previous Manila Carnival Queen winners. Nieves was born in 1905 to a ruling class family that lived in Pangasinan. A year after her reign, at the age of fifteen, she married Don Manuel Moran. He later became a Chief Justice and an Ambassador. In 1973, Nieve’s granddaughter won the Miss Universe contest, representing the Philippines. The photographer credited for the photograph on this postcard, is quite famous. Jose Nepomuceno is considered the father of Filipino Films. He started the first Filipino motion picture company in 1917. Prior to his movie production career, he was a successful and well known photographer. He was innovative and inventive. He was the first photographer in the Philippines to take photographs at night. He was the official photographer for beauty contests, carnivals and even official government events. SOLD
THE CABINET CARD GALLERY 