Halloween costume contest held at the Union

Arts & Culture

Javier Cortez and Amanda Guillen • October 31, 2013

Union Services hosted the annual Halloween costume contest today at noon.

Today, UTEP Union Programs hosted their annual Halloween costume contest at the Union Plaza stage.

For some the Halloween costume competition took precedence over going to class. Junior mechanical engineering major Italia Valles, who dressed up as a Sailor Moon from the popular Japanese comic/TV series “Sailor Moon,” took third place in this year’s contest.

“As a little kid, ‘Sailor Moon’ was my favorite show growing up,” Valles said. “It was a lot of fun, they just stopped me and asked if I wanted to join the contest, so I didn’t go to class.”

Edwin Martinez, took first place in the contest by basing his costume on an inflatable fly guy. The contest was judged on creativity more than anything else, and making a costume was more important than buying a costume.

“I just saw ‘Family Guy’ with a commercial they made with this, so I looked it up and made one,” Martinez said. “This was great, I didn’t expect to win, and I just wanted to have fun. I saw the flyer for the contest and just said I’ll join for fun.”

Julian Ochoa, sophomore theater arts major, had one of the most terrifying costumes dressed as Jason Voorhees from the “Friday the 13th” series. He took second place and said he was surprised by his finish considering the amount of people competing with great costumes.

“I thought I was going to lose,” Ochoa said. “I didn’t actually think I was going to win second place, there were a lot of good costumes out there. I’m really happy that I won second place, I definitely thought I was the scariest.”

There were many people in costumes, ranging from serial killers and princes to early 20th-century people. The Plaza was filled with a large crowd that watched, while students in costume paraded and performed as music was played by DJ Mike Dee.

About the Contributors

Javier Cortez, Staff Reporter

Javier Cortez is a staff reporter for The Prospector. He is a senior multimedia journalism major, with a minor in English Rhetoric. Javier was born and raised in El Paso, TX and before coming to UTEP in the summer of 2012, he graduated from Irvin High School, where he was a four-year varsity tennis player, a member of student council and a class officer for his graduating class. He has also worked for the El Paso Diablos as a sports information intern on their media relations team. In his spare time, Javier loves to write columns for the perspectives section in the school newspaper—whether it is sports, pop culture, religion, and society he loves to write about it. To go along with writing, Javier loves reading anything about sports, religion, and non-fiction.

Amanda Guillen, Editor-in-Chief

Amanda Guillen is a senior multimedia journalism major with a minor in women's studies. She was born and raised in El Paso, Texas and graduated from El Paso High School in 2011. She has been a part of The Prospector since summer 2013 and is currently Managing Editor. She has always had a passion for journalism and plans to become a television news reporter upon graduating from UTEP. In addition to being a full-time student and reporter, she is a part of two honor societies on campus, Alpha Lambda Delta and the National Society of Leadership and Success where she participates in community service regularly. Amanda also interns for KVIA Channel 7 the El Paso affiliate of ABC. Her love for the city of El Paso is something that led her to choose UTEP as her school of choice. She has enjoyed her past 3 years at the university and looks forward to an eventful school year.

Veronica Enriquez, Photo Editor

Veronica Enriquez is a senior at the University of Texas at El Paso majoring in multimedia journalism with a minor in art. Currently, she is working as the photo editor at The Prospector and helps out at her church with the youth. Coming from a family of photographers and journalists she grew an interest for photography from a very young age and during her sophomore year at Franklin High School she began to have an interest for journalism. Veronica simply loves telling people’s stories through photography, print, audio or video. Some of her hobbies include going on overseas mission trips, playing music, helping out at her church, spending time with her fiancée, friends and family.