Anna Santisteban
{{Short description|Puerto Rican businesswoman (1914–2003)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Anna Santisteban
| birth_date = {{birth date|1914|11|3}}
| birth_place = Guayama, Puerto Rico
| death_date = {{death date and age|2003|5|18|1914|11|3}}
| death_place = Santurce, Puerto Rico
| nationality =
| spouse =
| children =
| occupation = businesswoman, beauty entrepreneur
| movement =
| party =
| monuments =
| footnotes =
}}
Anna Santisteban (November 3, 1914 – May 18, 2003) was a Puerto Rican businesswoman and beauty entrepreneur who presided the Miss Puerto Rico beauty pageant. This beauty contest was in charge of selecting the Puerto Rican delegate to compete for the title of Miss Universe, though other of its participants represented the Caribbean Island in many other beauty competitions as well.
Career
Born in Guayama, Puerto Rico, Santisteban thought to create a modeling agency. Santisteban's finishing school and modeling academy, Polianna, quickly became a landmark for aspiring models{{Cite web|url=https://prpop.org/2019/07/reina-en-los-anos-del-west-side-story/|title=Reina en los años del 'West Side Story'|publisher=National Foundation for Popular Culture|location=San Juan, Puerto Rico|language=es}} in the island during the 1960s. She was famous for referring to her students as "my girls", her personal approach to training making her a mother figure for many runway and TV models at that time.{{Cite web|url=https://www.primerahora.com/entretenimiento/reinas/nota/missesmarcadasporlacorona-1302935/|title=Misses marcadas por la corona|date=September 18, 2018|website=Primera Hora|language=es}}{{Cite web|url=https://eladoquintimes.com/2017/01/12/la-elegancia-de-anna-santisteban/|title=La elegancia de Anna Santisteban|date=January 12, 2017|website=El Adoquín Times|language=es}}
After the success of her first beauty enterprise, in 1962 Santisteban received an offer to produce the Miss Puerto Rico competition.
Under Santisteban's close supervision, many Miss Puerto Rico titleholders became TV personalities, international models{{Cite web|url=https://prpop.org/biografias/lilliam-hurst/|title=Lilliam Hurst|publisher=National Foundation for Popular Culture|location=San Juan, Puerto Rico|language=es}} and business leaders. Some of her detractors have said that Santisteban was a very strict trainer and a very ambitious woman. She neither confirmed nor denied this fact, always focused on her duties with superb elegance and great passion to win another international crown. Santisteban's eagerness had to wait until 1985, when Deborah Carthy-Deu won the second Miss Universe title for her country. After that second triumph, Puerto Rico scored remarkable positions in both the semifinal and final rounds of this competition.
In 1993, Dayanara Torres became Santisteban's third and last winner for the Miss Universe Pageant. Two years later, at the age of 81, Santisteban was the oldest national director for the organization but was inexplicably removed from her duties, a bold move that many people interpreted as age discriminatory.
Personal life
{{unreferenced section|date=March 2025}}
With first husband Luis Pedreira, Santisteban had three sons, Walter, Luis and Alberto, the youngest, who died in an accident. When Ortiz, her second husband and business partner, died in 2000, she suffered a fall and was removed from her Art-Deco home in the upmarket San Juan area known as Ocean Park, to a long-term care nursing home named Hogar Santa Teresa de Jornet.
On May 18, 2003, Santisteban died at the Pavía Hospital in Santurce, Puerto Rico after battling a long illness.