The air fryer really worked for Bristol’s Miss Fourth of July

The following interview has been condensed and edited.

Can you tell me about yourself and your family?

I don’t have any siblings. My dad is a lifelong Bristolian — he’s an engineer in Portsmouth — and my mom lived in Maryland when she was younger. My mom died when I was 12.

Oh, I’m sorry.

No, it’s OK. It’s OK. It’s a big — it makes a lot of things make a lot more sense. My mom’s family is from Rockville and Bethesda and Gaithersburg — they’re all still there. So it’s harder to stay in contact, but they still, obviously, love my dad, so we have a great relationship. My mom had family in Bristol, so she would come here for the summer. My parents met through family friends. I’ve lived in the same house ever since I was born.

How are you spending your summer when you’re not being Miss Fourth?

I scoop ice cream at Tizzy K’s in Warren, and I work in Tiverton at a gymnastics camp. When I’m not working or Miss Fourth, I go grocery shopping, I go to the mall, I want to go to the trampoline park.

What made you enter the Miss Fourth of July pageant?

I was like, what better way to get reintroduced to Bristol after my first year of college. I had a lot of fun. I knew some of the other girls pretty well — everyone in Bristol and Warren goes to the same high school, so you know of everyone. It was fun to reconnect with people, and there were some people I hadn’t met before. I was just like, yeah, I’m doing this for fun.

A lot of my family was in town because my cousin just graduated from college, and the grad party was the day of. I actually told them, “Please don’t come to the pageant. I’m going to lose.” So, needless to say, they were all very angry when I won and they were not there to see it. But there are some really funny videos of it.

I understand you ran for Little Miss Fourth years ago, but unfortunately, you didn’t win.

I did not win, and I was devastated. I was 8 years old, and I did not get this tiara, and I was like, this is the end of my life. This year, I had this really great opportunity in one of my classes to write a memoir, and I chose to write about that experience. As I was talking about it, my professor was like, “Well, can’t you run for Miss Fourth now?” And I did. I emailed him immediately after I won like, “You’re never going to believe what happened.”

How does it feel to be Miss Fourth on America’s 250th anniversary?

It definitely feels very special. Every house on the street now has a 250 flag. People are very into the number, but I think it means something different for everyone in the town. For me, this whole opportunity has been about how do I want people to see Bristol, how would I like Bristol to be perceived. And I think the pageant is a really great thing because it’s one of the few places that young people can get involved. I think it’s a great opportunity, and it’s nice to be recognized because then people want to hear about me and they want to know, “Well, what makes you special?”

What do you think does make you special?

I abhor that question because I really don’t know. I think all of the girls on the court and in the pageant are so talented and so interesting — that’s what made the pageant so fun. I think I might have stood out because I feel like I bombed one of my interviews. In my application for the pageant, I wrote a lot about how we live in an era of convenience, and partially yes, I’m talking about AI, but I’m talking about a lot of different things and technology in general. And like no one is willing to wait for things, and I think that’s really harmful.

One of my interviewers asked me how I felt about her use of AI for a project, and I panicked because I was like, “I’m not saying you’re a bad person.” I felt really terrible. I really thought I had screwed up, and I panicked halfway through and said, “I don’t think we should get rid of our air fryers.” And yeah, I lamented on that one for a while. I told all the girls in the pageant about it. They’ll turn to me sometimes and go, “Hey, the air fryer really worked for you.”

Our country is particularly divided right now. Do you have a message for young people dealing with that?

During the pageant, my million-dollar question was, “What do you look for in a friend?” I talked about how we live in a world that’s so divided by hate. I think when you’re looking for a friend, you should look for someone who loves. That would be my number one thing. “Love everybody.” I know it’s kind of a generic statement now, but I think compassion and empathy go a really long way — especially nowadays. Everyone has a reason for the things that they do, and knowing why can explain how.

How do you see your role as a young adult representing tradition and community?

I think there are different ways to define tradition, and I think something like the Fourth of July parade is a good example of tradition. It’s something we’ve done for a very long time, but it’s still evolved. It’s not like we turn people away from the parade because they haven’t participated before. It is a really great way to bring people together, and it highlights really great things in Bristol. I think there’s a really great balance of tradition, but also adaptability — there is growth, but it is also in a traditional sense. It’s like, “How can we make tradition modern?” And I think that’s my goal.

What do you want people to know about the town of Bristol?

I want people to see physically how beautiful it is. It would be nice to have people come to the parade and want to stay longer. Bristol’s youth population is getting smaller. We are shutting down Guiteras Elementary School right now. The high school is getting smaller. I would love to see more young people in Bristol, and I think the parade is a really great way to get people here because it shows our community, and it shows how hard we work to keep these communities.

Do you have a favorite memory from the parade growing up?

My dad is a volunteer firefighter and my mom was part of the Ladies Auxiliary, which is basically the wives of firefighters. I got to hold the banner one year, and when you’re young, getting to walk in the parade is like, “I’m famous.” I thought it was the coolest thing ever. So if you told 8-year-old Cristina, “You’re Miss Fourth of July,” she’d be like, “No freaking way.”