It is called "gratitude" or being grateful in Latino culture but did outgoing titleholder, who is Mexican-American, snub Donald Trump at the Miss USA 2015 pageant?
Around a year after she won the title in the same location in Baton Rouge, 25-year-old Nia Sanchez took her final walk wearing a white evening gown and thanked her supporters, friends, families and Paula Shugart of the Miss Universe Organization (MUO). The past years had the winners thanking Donald Trump but the Miss USA 2015 event did not find Nia thanking the pageant owner.
"This year has been one of the best years of my life," the outgoing titleholder said during the final walk. "I am forever thankful to God and to the people who made it all possible."
She further went on thanking her family, her state pageant director, MUO's Paula Shugart, her fellow beauty queen titleholders -- Miss Universe 2014 Paulina Vega, Miss Teen USA 2013 Cassidy Wolf, Miss Universe 2013 Gabriela Isler and Miss Teen USA 2014 K. Lee Graham - and her fiancé, actor Daniel Booko.
The apparent snub to Donald Trump at the Miss USA 2015 has never happened in the past few years of the national pageant. During last year's edition, 2013 titleholder Erin Brady thanked Donald Trump "for backing the dreams of so many young women all over the world."
Likewise, Alyssa Campanella who was Miss USA 2011 also expressed her gratitude to the businessman, thanking him for the opportunity and believing in her.
The man who usually was number one on the beauty queens' thank you list is now off the board - at least for Nia Sanchez.
Did she just forget to include Donald Trump in her Miss USA 2015 thank you message, or was it a "disguised expression of disgust" over the recent remarks made against her race?
Despite outspoken reactions from the Mexicans and other pageant queens over Donald Trump's statement that some Mexicans are "rapists and criminals," Nia Sanchez was among those who did not react during the days when the issue was still new.
Whether it was her final blow for the businessman or not, she went on by saying, "Miss USA and Miss Universe is all about bringing together women all over the world, celebrating the diversity and that experience changed my life."
Nia Sanchez was born to a Mexican father who served in the military based in Germany and a mother who was raised in a military base in Iran. She is a fourth degree black belter in Taekwondo as a result of her father enrolling her to the martial arts school to conquer her shyness according to her pageant interview.
Donald Trump skipped the Miss USA 2015 pageant because of campaign commitments according to his tweet.
