María Stella Márquez—Araneta (born 17 June 1937) (née Márquez Zawadski), often styled as Madame Stella Márquez de Araneta, is a Colombian pageant director and beauty queen. She grew up in New York City and moved back to Colombia, where she became a pageant titleholder. As Miss Colombia, she was crowned the first Miss International in 1960. She obtained her Filipino citizenship via naturalization in 1970. Araneta was the former national director of the Miss Universe and current director for Miss International franchises in the Philippines, under the Binibining Pilipinas organization. She also has served as chairman of the Binibining Pilipinas Charities Incorporated for fifty years. Early life Araneta was born in Tumaco, Colombia to Arturo Eduardo Márquez Acevedo, from Tumaco and Stella Zawadski Navia, from Valle del Cauca. She moved to the United States in 1954. She is the eldest sibling of two younger sisters. At the time, she was a high school student at Marymount School of New York in Manhattan. Initially, her father, working as a civil engineer decided to take her out of the school to Colombia on a promise of temporary vacation. As a young student, Araneta classified herself as a Gringa, noting that she was completely unable to relate to the Colombian culture, including its national dance Cumbia. After high school, Araneta enrolled in Marymount College, Tarrytown, New York to continue her major both in psychology and the French language. In 1957, she gained an honorary prize as a beauty model for Pan American Airlines, though not necessarily a pageant contest. She also represented as Miss Honduras on a local Los Angeles pageant due to its lack of national entry. During that time, she was also sent by the nuns from her school as one of the “court princesses” for the 1957 homecoming event in Loyola Marymount University as a gesture of solidarity among affiliated Catholic schools for women. Miss Colombia During her stay in Colombia, Araneta learned the value of social work and became acquainted with the local Roman Catholic Church there to fund charities. The first charity she helped manage was named "Banquet of the Millionaires" through the assistance of a famed Catholic priest, Father Rafael García Herreros (1909—1992). Araneta was chosen as the representative of her country in 1958 by winning three local titles, Miss Tumaco, Miss Nariño and Miss Queen of Spain. Her victory under the department state of Nariño was