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Deneb Morales Rodríguez was born in Caibarién, a small fishing village in central Cuba, where she grew up raised by her mother and grandparents, while at school she faced bullying for being tall and thin. She is 21 years old and is a single mother. She currently lives in Miami and has become an official candidate for the Miss Universe Cuba beauty pageant, which will be held in July of 2025 in the city of Hialeah. The winner will advance to the final Miss Universe competition, taking place next November in Thailand.
At just 18 years old, Deneb Morales made a difficult decision: he emigrated to China with a work contract, which upon arrival he discovered was not what had been promised to him. But he did not return to Caibarién. He stayed there for ten years. Initially, he worked to support his mother, who was a nurse and suffered from a chronic illness, but his mother passed away two years after his arrival in Asia.
From her mother, Deneb Morales recalls that when she was teased at school in Cuba about her weight and height, her mother would tell her that she saw her as beautiful and knew she would go far. And that has proven to be true. From participating in the floats of Caibarién and starting out in the world of digital modeling at the age of 12, this young single mother has become an official candidate in a contest where Lina Luaces, daughter of Lili Stefan, is also competing. She has achieved this after leaving China and starting over in the United States.
Deneb Morales arrived in Miami in 2022, with an invitation letter from his father. Like many Cubans, he had to wait two years for his residency permit to restart his life.
The young Cuban arrives at the competition as a single mother, immigrant, and model, but also firmly believing that all women are beautiful and can achieve their dreams. "To those mothers who think that after giving life their own ends," she tells them it is not so, that "it is just beginning" because women "can handle everything" and "are capable of anything."
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