A Colombian beauty queen had a very public misstep.

Laura Saavedra, the Miss Huila representative, was practicing her talent when she was asked who Nelson Mandela was.

Saavedra said, "He's the person that started the beauty pageant."

The contestant has come out to defend herself. She explains that she heard incorrectly.

"More than anything that was a hearing problem," she said. "A reporter from RCN made us do a hula hooping activity. I started doing the activity with the hoop, and there were three questions asked very quickly while I hula hooped."

She said that she heard the name Carlos Martelo instead of the late South African leader Mandela. She didn't even realize that she had made a mistake until someone pointed it out.

After the short interview, she thanked the reporter and went off to another event.

It wasn't until she went home that she heard that Miss Huila had messed up.

"They said that Miss Huila had said that Nelson Mandela was the founder of the national beauty pageant," she said. "By God! Obviously, I know. I know who each of those two people are."

Saavedra continued to defend herself and said that what happened to her could have happened to anyone.

The beauty queen's response became a trending topic in Colombia, with plenty of social media users using #MissHuila. There were also plenty of memes inspired by the situation.

One joked that Saavedra would say that Mandela discovered America.

Another posted a picture of Mandela standing next to Queen Elizabeth II.

"Nelson Mandela + queen = National Beauty Pageant. Understand Miss Huila," the commenter said.

One other person believed that there needed to be less pretty faces on TV and more intelligent people.