8 July 3-9, 2025 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | ¡Dios Mia! Miss Universe Cuba contestant says crown won’t be “a golden shackle.” BY CASSIE MARTINEZ T he Miss Universe Cuba pageant is not held in Havana or any- where else on its namesake is- land. Instead, it takes place in Hialeah, a city shaped by genera- tions of Cuban exiles, and a location that is not merely logistical. One of the many changes brought by Fidel Castro’s revolution was a ban on beauty pag- eants, which he dismissed as “frivolous” and “shallow.” The ban remains in place today. Modeling — posing silently for the camera — is permitted in Cuba, but giving women a mi- crophone and a platform is not. For contestants like Mia Dio, that distinc- tion is significant. “Why can’t this pageant oc- cur in Cuba?” she asks in an interview with New Times. “It’s because you’re not giving [models] a microphone and telling them what they actually have to go home to — the lack of power, the lack of water, the lack of medicine.” Mia Angelina Donadio Cancio, better known online as Mia Dio, is a Miami native and viral content creator who, last month, be- came one of 20 women selected to compete in the upcoming Miss Universe Cuba pag- eant. She’s built a global audience through brash humor, sharp social commentary, and unfiltered takes on everything from dating to feminism. She aims to bring that same out- spoken approach to the pageant world when tackling subjects including period poverty, femicide, and censorship in Cuba. “I’m very much aware...that because of my opinions, there’s a great opportunity that I will not win,” says Dio, 24, of her involvement in a competition often associated with diplo- macy and polished answers. Her path to advocacy was shaped not only by her upbringing in South Florida but also by personal tragedy. In 2023, she suffered a mis- carriage, an experience that left her grappling with depression and impostor syndrome. She questioned the value of her work and the platform she had built through years of on- line content cre- ation. As she worked through her grief, she rede- fined her mission. “I wanted to start making con- tent that was a lit- tle bit clearer in the messaging...as far as what we should be doing as a society; as women,” she says. Her platform now centers on visibility and empowerment. Dio frequently cites troubling statistics about life on the island, where Cu- ban women face rising rates of gender-based violence, femicide, and severe shortages of basic necessities. Widespread period poverty forces many women to rely on low-quality or improvised menstrual products due to chronic shortages and inflated black market prices. Dio is determined to use her growing platform to highlight those issues, many of which she says receive little attention beyond the island. While she acknowledges that not every contestant has the privilege to speak openly — many still have family on the island and may fear retribution — Dio believes her cir- cumstances give her a responsibility to raise her voice. Her identity as a Cuban American is shaped by the stories of family members like her grandfather, former Miami-Dade County commissioner Jose “Pepe” Cancio, a Republican politician who fled Cuba as a child through Operation Peter Pan. “I feel like I know Cuba through my fami- ly’s memories,” she says. Dio says pageant insiders and fans have cau- tioned that Miss Universe tends to favor safe, noncontroversial candidates. Still, she remains committed to competing on her own terms. “Why is it that when a man breaks the mold, they’re revolutionary...but when a woman does it, she’s controversial?” she asks. Regardless of how the judges score her, she says her participation has already served its purpose. For her, the pageant is not about personal glory but about creating space for stories that are too often silenced. “If I want to win, I want to win authenti- cally me, 100 percent me,” she says. “And if I was 100 percent authentically me, and that meant that I couldn’t win, that wasn’t neces- sarily my crown.” In her view, the title is secondary to the message. “If the crown above my head is just going to be a golden shackle,” she says, “you can keep it and I’ll keep yapping.” [email protected] ▼ Culture Miami native and viral content creator Mia Dio has been outspoken about period poverty, femicide, and censorship in Cuba. Photo by Stephanie Miranda “IF I WANT TO WIN, I WANT TO WIN AUTHENTICALLY ME, 100 PERCENT ME.”
