Mia Dio Wins Miss Universe Cuba 2026 One Year After Competing With Facial Paralysis

MIAMI – Mia Dio has completed one of the most unusual journeys in modern pageant history, going from crashing a celebrity red carpet to winning the Miss Universe Cuba 2026 crown.

The Cuban American influencer, whose full name is Mia Angelina Donadio Cancio, was crowned Thursday night at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center in Cutler Bay, Florida. Representing Isla de la Juventud, she prevailed over a field of 19 contestants and succeeded Miss Universe Cuba 2025 Lina Luaces.

Dio will now represent Cuba at the 75th Miss Universe competition, scheduled for Nov. 24 at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The victory came one year after Dio reached the Top 5 at Miss Universe Cuba 2025 despite suffering facial paralysis shortly before the final. She said at the time that the paralysis resulted from a Botox injection she had received as treatment for temporomandibular joint disorder, or TMJ, which caused jaw pain and migraines.

“I felt like half of my face was asleep, and I couldn’t smile normally,” Dio said while explaining what happened after the 2025 competition.

Although some of her supporters questioned why she had not advanced further, Dio rejected suggestions that Luaces did not deserve the title.

“Lina was the clear winner of the night and deserved to win,” she said at the time.

Dio returned to the competition in 2026 saying she believed in second chances. Her victory placed a crown on a story that began with a prank rather than a traditional pageant audition.

In February 2025, she slipped onto the Premio Lo Nuestro magenta carpet in Miami and persuaded photographers and other attendees that she was a celebrity. Her video documenting the stunt went viral and eventually attracted the attention of people connected to Miss Universe Cuba.

“I’m not famous, at least not yet,” she said in the video. “I crashed a red carpet and made everyone believe I was a celebrity, and this story only gets crazier because it ends with a Miss Universe casting.”

She later entered Miss Universe Cuba 2025, represented Isla de la Juventud and won the Miss Popularity award in addition to securing a place among the five finalists.

Born in Miami to a Cuban mother and an Argentine father, Dio has built an audience of more than 1 million followers on Instagram and more than 5 million on TikTok. She graduated from Florida International University with a degree in international relations and has frequently used her platforms to discuss Cuba and human rights.

Her mother, attorney and political activist Marili Cancio, has participated in Republican politics in South Florida. Dio is also the granddaughter of Cuban American businessman and former Miami-Dade County Commissioner José “Pepe” Cancio, who was part of the Bay of Pigs invasion.

During this year’s pageant campaign, Dio drew attention with a tribute to Cuba’s Ladies in White, the peaceful movement created by relatives of dissidents, journalists and activists imprisoned during the Cuban government’s 2003 Black Spring crackdown.

For the tribute, she wore white, carried gladiolus flowers and explained the history of the women whose silent marches became an international symbol of resistance.

“In Cuba, a group of women dressed in white walked quietly through the streets holding flowers,” she said in the accompanying video. “Somehow, this made them enemies of the state.”

Dio’s crowning continues Cuba’s recent return to the Miss Universe stage after a 57-year absence. Marianela Ancheta represented the country in 2024, becoming the first Cuban contestant to compete in Miss Universe since 1967. Luaces followed in 2025 and reached the Top 12.

Now Dio will carry the Cuban sash to Puerto Rico, where she will attempt to turn an already improbable pageant journey into a Miss Universe title.