Raquel Pélissier (born August 21, 1991) is a

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

an model and beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss Haiti 2016. She represented

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...

at the pageant and represented Haiti at Miss Universe 2016 where she ended as 1st Runner-Up, being the first Haitian delegate to place in the finals in 41 years, with their last placement being back in 1975.

Personal life

Pélissier was born in Haiti. At the age of three, Pélissier was in a twenty-one day coma, came out of it and was paralyzed for a week. She later survived the

2010 Haiti earthquake A disaster, catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (department), Ouest department, a ...

. Pélissier started doing photo shoots for local magazine ''Rebelle Haiti'', then lost to France's Iris Mittenaere, the eventual winner in Miss Universe 2016, held in Manila, Philippines. Post-Miss Universe, Pélissier has done several pageant-related videos on her YouTube channel, which has almost 7,000 subscribers. Pélissier has a master's degree in Scientific Research from Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain. She is fluent in English and Spanish, alongside her native tongues of French and

Haitian Creole Haitian Creole (; ht, kreyòl ayisyen, links=no, ; french: créole haïtien, links=no, ), commonly referred to as simply ''Creole'', or ''Kreyòl'' in the Creole language, is a French-based creole language spoken by 10–12million people wor ...

References

1991 births Living people People from Port-au-Prince Haitian beauty pageant winners Haitian female models Miss Universe 2016 contestants Complutense University of Madrid alumni {{Pageant-bio-stub