A bodybuilder on the catwalk at 71: How Marissa Teijo became the sensation of Miss Texas USA

After raising her children and teaching hundreds of others in her job as a bilingual elementary school teacher, Marissa Teijo has captured local headlines in recent weeks, with variations on: “71-year-old woman makes history by entering Miss Texas USA pageant.” People were also surprised when Teijo began winning bodybuilding contests in her forties, a skinny yet strong, brown-skinned goddess crowned as one of the best in American bodybuilding. The same skinny yet strong goddess who now inspires young girls who pose in bikinis alongside her, reminding them that beauty doesn’t come with an expiration date.

“Everything brings its reward if you work hard,” Teijo tells EL PAÍS. And she knows a thing or two about hard work. Teijo did not win the Miss Texas USA pageant; the crown went to Aarieanna Ware. But she made her mark at a pageant that only recently began allowing women of all ages to participate. Until last year, 28 was the upper age limit to anyone aspiring to a Miss Universe crown. With that restriction removed, and at 43 years above the previous age limit, Teijo broke the record for the oldest contestant in the history of pageants in June.

The Latina girl who felt like an ugly duckling

In the Texas panhandle, one of the windiest regions in the United States, far from the skyscrapers, the bright lights and the shopping malls, Teijo worked on the family farm in the summers of her youth, hoe in hand, plowing the land. Her father knew that he wouldn’t have enough to pay for her and her siblings to go to college in a few years’ time, so he took them with him to work so they could save as much as possible for their studies. In the panhandle of the time, she was the only student who spoke Spanish at home, the only one with olive skin. “We were different, the other kids had blonde hair and blue eyes. In my classes I was the Hispanic one. I always thought I wasn’t pretty, that I looked ugly,” she recalls.

Her parents are from Moctezuma, a town in San Luis Potosí, in western Mexico. “They didn’t have the opportunity to get a formal education, but they were incredibly smart,” she says. The money she earned working the fields was not all destined for the future; part of it went on school supplies and back-to-school clothes, from which she chose the most “fashionable, trendy, beauty” items.

Years later, she left the North Texas plains and returned to the south of the state, where she was born, on the Mexican border. She married, had two children, became a teacher and later separated. Then, one day, she passed Rachel McLish’s calves in the hallway.

“Do you know who Rachel McLish is?” she asks. Negative. She explains that she was the first Miss Olympia, back when Arnold Schwarzenegger famously became Mr. Olympia. “I remember seeing her walk and seeing her little calf muscles, and I was fascinated. From then on, I said: I want to have muscles like her. She didn’t have big muscles, she was a slim and tall girl, very well-built,” she dwells on the details like a little girl remembering her favorite birthday.

McLish happened to live in Harlingen, the same Texas town where Teijo lived. It was McLish who taught her and encouraged her to lift weights seriously. First, with the motivation of looking good in a bikini on the beaches of Padre Island, near her home. Then, with the idea of entering contests, advised by a bodybuilder who trained her for free. That’s how she learned to pose with her arms like Popeye, showing off a magazine-cover body. A “wild power,” Teijo says with a laugh. “I liked it because I started to win. I wanted to do that, and do it well.

Late but secure love

Teijo’s small, shapely muscles attracted her love of the last 20 years, an Argentine engineer she met on a trip to Buenos Aires, where she had traveled to learn more about teaching in local schools. This love is also a story of adjustment and new experiences, especially after years of bachelorhood and independence.

“I didn’t know how to choose men before,” she confesses with a laugh. “But he was different; he is a very good person and very nice to me.” In her social media photos, the couple can be seen dancing together, laughing together, traveling together, eating and drinking together.

Teijo had been single for many years; she didn’t like being married and did everything on her own. She bought her house by herself, her furniture, and made all the decisions for a long time. “Years went by, and I got used to it. Life is to be shared and it’s much better like that,” she says.

— Is 20 years a long time?

— Not that long! Remember how old I am

An influencer after Miss Texas

In the El Paso community, Teijo has been asked to make videos of her workouts and she does, uploading them to her Instagram account; she has been asked to be an influencer, and she does that too, visiting the businesses of friends and acquaintances in the city and recommending them. Competitions are now behind her and, at 71, she knows she can’t maintain the same routine as when she was in her thirties, forties or fifties. She still does a cardio workout every day: walking, swimming, spinning or other sports. And three days a week she lifts weights.

She watches her diet, as she says she always has: little in the way of processed foods, lots of water - a gallon a day when she competed - and small amounts of sugar, a little taste of dessert or sweet things from time to time; those are the most fattening, she says.

“I learned to eat healthy from a young age, thanks to living in a farming community,” she explains, emphasizing the importance of a healthy lifestyle on her physical and mental well-being. Happiness, she adds, is not having a lean, well-shaped body, because everyone’s shape is different. Happiness, she says, is taking care of the body you have and keeping it in the best shape possible, advice she has passed on to her daughter.

Sometimes, Teijo says she can’t escape the nagging thought of advancing years, but she remains positive: “When the idea of ‘old’ crosses my mind, I say: ‘No, I don’t feel old, I’m a young-minded person. I look in the mirror and I know I can’t be like I was in my thirties, but hey, I feel pretty spry, you know? I’m more of a realist than a fantasist. I feel very proud of myself, of having worked so hard; I’m getting my reward now.”

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