By 2024, the Miss Universe beauty pageant plans to have representatives from 120 countries, so they invited Cuba to return after 57 years of absence; however, the pageant for the Caribbean nation will take place in Florida, because the organization considers the Cuban regime a dictatorship and refuses to engage in any transactions with it.
"Prince" Julio César, the organizer of the Cuban contest, told the EFE agency that the Miss Universe organization, with over 60 years of history, "is completely closed to making any transactions with the Cuban Government."
The national director of Miss Cuba said that the organization he represents does not engage in dealings with dictatorial regimes, "but with completely democratic governments." That is why the decision was made to give Cuba the opportunity to participate in Miss Universe, but from the city of Miami.
The Venezuelan fashion designer considered it appropriate to point out that, since the beginning of the dictatorship in Cuba in 1959, the nation stopped participating in the contest because "it was not compatible with their ideals".
Furthermore, he explained that for two years there were Cuban queens chosen in exile and crowned at an event held in Miami, called Miss Cuba Libre. However, it did not last due to the tensions between Cuba and the United States at that time.
Regarding the decision to choose Miami as the event venue, he pointed out that it is "the largest stronghold of all Cubans worldwide."
According to César, at the contest, which will take place in Miami next September, the representatives of Cuba chosen from the exile aspirants will participate, and he pointed out that the majority were born in the Caribbean nation and "have arrived here by raft, have arrived here by boat, have arrived here through a visa."
He emphasized that out of a thousand applicants who showed up in this city, among women born on the island or to Cuban parents, just over half were preselected, from which the twenty finalists will be chosen.
The winner will take to Mexico a message to the contest that will surely be "about freedom, about democracy," said the national director of Miss Cuba, who had previously stated in recent statements that the platform he leads has no political purposes, but cultural ones.
However, César considered that Cuba's return to the beauty pageant is a matter of the organization's "vision."
"I believe that they are betting on inclusion from all points of view, much more from the cultural perspective, and it is related to this movement of female empowerment, not taking away or not allowing any woman, regardless of what may be happening in her country, to be unable to be," declared to EFE.
The Miss Universe event gala will take place next November in Mexico, and Cuba will have a representative for the first time after 57 years of absence.
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