Candice Blanco

Miss Bolivar 1991

Candice was born in Cambridge Massachusetts in the year 1970. Her father and mother met while doing there masters in Landscape Architecture in Harvard University. Her father is from Iowa and her mother is from Caracas Venezuela. Around the age of 4 Candice moved to Venezuela. She lived there till year 1992 when she moved back to the United States. In Venezuela she went to high school at San Ignacio Loyola. Then she studied Business Administration at University of Santa Maria in Caracas. She discontinued her second year at her university to pursue her goal of becoming Miss Venezuela. In the year 1990 she represented the state as Miss Anzoátegui till she fell while hiking the Avila mountain and hurt her cervical spine. This injury prevented her from competing the 1990 contest of Miss Venezuela. She recuperated and return to become 1991 Miss Bolivar. Her godfather owned a farm there in Bolivar where she visited in the summer. While competing in the Miss Venezuela contest 1991 she completed her education to become a translator for English and Spanish. This was done at the Berlitz Institute.

Competing in the Miss Venezuela was a challenge. The man in charge was Osmel Sousa. He had his favorites and she was not one of them. Thanks to being friendly to the reporters she was able to find out the other events being done that she was not included in. Despite all the efforts she did and the reporters felt she should win or classify high on the competition she received Miss Photogenic and 5th finalist. The reporters had nominated her as there queen.

After the contest she worked at the TV station of Venevision.  Feeling she could accomplish so much more she left Venezuela and went to live in Hollywood Florida. Here she had to start all over again in her schooling. She went to Broward Community College where she obtained her Associates in Science. From there she went to University of Miami. While going to school there she had to take her grandmother to the hospital for an asthma attack. The attending residence was Dr. Jose Rafael Marquina. From that day forward they were in love. Rafael was finishing his 3 rd year of residency in Jackson Memorial hospital. Rafael wanted to do his fellowship in Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep medicine at Saint Elizabeth Hospital in Boston Massachusetts. Therefore they moved in together and moved to Boston. There Candice transferred to Northeastern University. Where she completed her bachelors in Civil Engineering. She went to work as a Civil Engineer for several years at Stone & Webster. She was the in charge of the International Terminal E at Boston airport. That job was a dream job. She loved going to work every day and building this terminal and satellites systems for the airplanes. She worked there till her first child was born.  Then she moved to Naples Florida where her husband now a board certified Physician in 4 specialties opens his first practice.

From day 1 that the office opens she works front desk with her 1 year old son at her side. She then becomes pregnant with her daughter. She then works part time at the office till her daughter is 6 months old. Her medical biller quits and she is told to please help more at the office. This is when she stated to work full time for her husbands practice and realizes she loves medicine. That helping patients was a very fulfilling job. The practice went from 3 employees to over 26 employees in 13 years. She worked as the office manager, medical assistant, sleep technician and IT in computers and repairing the sleep equipment. In September 29, 2015 her husbands dies and the practiced closes. She felt lost and depressed. Slowly she has recovered and her children have too. Candice now is going back to school to become a Nurse Practitioner and being able to help patients again. She enjoys on the weekends to ride her Harley Motorcycle.