You’re surrounded by violence,” Siaca told The Post of life as a “painfully shy” youngster amidst the MS-13 riddled area.
Now, the 27-year-old, who works as an operations manager for a global investment firm, is set to compete in the Miss USA pageant, airing live on FYI at 8 p.m.
Raised by a single dad, an Army vet who worked in construction, Siaca was a tomboy who learned to change a flat tire years before she knew how to apply mascara.
In 2015, her interest in pageants was piqued when she was flipping through a school newsletter featuring a Miss New York USA.
Prepping for her debut at the Miss New York USA pageant in 2016 was a transformation — both physical and emotional.
The platform changed how she saw herself intellectually: “I never felt like I had a voice.
Ahead of her final pageant this past August — the max age for competitors is 27 — she came to realize that her dream of winning might not come true.
Then, at the Resorts World Catskills hotel in a sea of 160 contestants, she won.
Now, she goes back to her middle and high schools to speak to the kids about building self-confidence.
There’s water training, mostly just reducing water intake two days before a pageant, a process that’s designed to reduce water retention and help emphasize abdominal definition onstage.
While she now has sponsors that contribute to her training, including her workplace, GEM , Siaca admitted that prepping is a full-time job on top of her full-time job.
“I’m not making friends at these pageants — girls don’t want to talk to me,” Siaca said during a February 2021 podcast, “Podcast and Chill,” about the cutthroat process.
What else is on the post-pageant agenda? “An extra side of fries would be cool,” she said with a laugh.