Victoria Salcedo was 5 years old when she went skating near her home in Guayaquil. A high-voltage wire changed everything.
The electric shock left her with an 89% disability, and doctors had to amputate both her arms and her left leg. As she recounted, gangrene made surgery necessary to save her life. As a child, she also experienced bullying, and that was when she understood something she never forgot: if her self-esteem stayed low, it would get her nowhere.
Twenty years later, having become a psychologist and known on social media as ‘Vicco,’ she competed in Miss Ecuador 2021 as a candidate representing Guayas. She walked the runway in a swimsuit and an evening gown, hiding nothing. ‘I am a woman with dreams, and if I don’t take action to fulfill them, no one will do it for me,’ she said.
She did not make it into the top 10 semifinalists or win the crown. But Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Komarov, who has twice served as a judge at beauty pageants in his country, featured her in an episode of his show and said that, if he were a judge, he would vote for her because of her beauty, her ability to draw attention, and her courage.
