One-on-one with the Houston woman crowned Miss Texas USA. The former high school wrestler turned beauty queen talked about her road to the crown and how her mother’s death from ALS motivated her to spread awareness.
“I was like wait, what is it really me?” said Alzate. “It wasn’t till they put the sash on me that I realized I really did just win.”
Unlike other pageant winners, Alzate says pageantry was never a lifelong dream.
“I used to be a wrestler in high school, so that’s two completely opposite things,” she joked. “If you would have asked me last year, around January, that I’d be Miss Texas or competing in pageants I would’ve thought you were crazy.”
But in 2019 her mom was diagnosed with ALS.
“I was being a full-time caregiver to my mother at that time,” said Alzate.
She thought pageantry could be a platform to spread awareness about the neurodegenerative disease.
“It was definitely a journey of perseverance and pushing forward,” said Alzate.
Turns out she was a natural.