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How Did You Know?

Queen for a Day first aired on TV in 1956. The lucky contestant who related the most convincing tale of misfortune was given the royal treatment—a crown, a scepter, a robe, and a prize to help with her problems.

Give the royal treatment to a special friend today. Your "queen for the day" needn't be a saint. She might be haughty or naughty, like this Rodeo Queen, captured in words and image by artist Luis Jiménez.

"I found the Rodeo Queens humorous. If you ever actually watch as those Rodeo Queens ride past the judges, they rub up and down in the saddle and they have this Rodeo Queen stance where they're tucking in their shirts and pitching their chests out. They're a kind of icon in the West. In fact, years later when I was setting up the Progress II piece, I was talking with one of the curators that was working with that show and she was walking around tucking in her shirt. I said, "You used to be a Rodeo Queen." And she said, "How did you know?"

Source: Rudolfo Anaya, et.al. Man on Fire: Luis Jiménez (Albuquerque, New Mexico: The Albuquerque Museum, 1994).

Pictured: Luis Jiménez, born 1940, Rodeo Queen, 1972, colored pencil and pencil on paper, 30 x 22 1/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Robert and Joan Doty.