Anna Santisteban

Anna Santisteban (1914 - May 18, 2003) was a Puerto Rican woman who was in charge, for many years, of the Miss Puerto Rico beauty contest and of preparing the winners of that contest to participate in the Miss Universe contest. She considered many of the women she prepared to be like daughters, calling them her girls.

Santisteban took up the direction of Miss Puerto Rico in the 1950s. In 1970, Marisol Malaret became her first Miss Universe winner. This was followed by Deborah Carthy-Deu in 1985 and Dayanara Torres in 1993. In the late 1990s, she was removed as director of Miss Puerto Rico. Many Puerto Ricans suggested she was removed from her position because of her age.

Some of her detractors have said Santisteban was a strict trainer with her beauty queens. Santisteban neither confirmed nor denied this, concentrating on her job instead.

Santisteban had two sons, Walter and Luis, and one niece, Angie. She became a widow in 2000, the year in which she moved from her house in the upmarket San Juan area known as Ocean Drive, to a home for the elderly and disabled named Hogar Santa Teresa Jornet. She moved there after suffering a fall.

On May 18 of 2003, she passed away at the Hospital Pavia in the Santurce area of San Juan, after battling a long illness.