Mia Dio, candidate for Miss Universe Cuba 2026, posted on Instagram a reel and an artistic photo session dedicated to the Damas de Blanco, the movement of Cuban women that emerged when they marched in white to demand the release of political prisoners from the Black Spring.
In the video, Mia Dio narrates the story of the movement while conducting a photo shoot inspired by it: she wears an elaborate white tulle dress with a lace veil and holds white gladioli in front of a Cuban flag, the same symbols that those women adopted to protest silently.
"In Cuba, a group of women dressed in white walked silently through the streets holding flowers. And somehow, that was enough for them to be regarded as enemies of the State," says Mia Dio at the beginning of the reel.
The candidate explains that the movement was born when dissidents, independent journalists, and activists were arrested during the Black Spring of 2003 and sentenced to long prison terms. Their wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters began to gather, dress in white—a symbol of peace—and attend mass on Sundays.
The Cuban regime responded with surveillance, insults, aggression, and arrests. "But their response was simple: they kept coming back, time and again," Mia Dio points out in the video.
The movement succeeded in keeping the names of political prisoners alive when the government wanted them forgotten, drew international attention to human rights violations on the island, and, with the support of human rights groups, the Catholic Church, and Spain, achieved the release of the 75 prisoners from the Black Spring, although many were forced into exile.
In 2005, the Ladies in White received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament, and to this day, their activists continue to demand the freedom of political prisoners in Cuba.
Mia Dio closed the video with a direct message: "History has never been changed by women who waited to feel powerful first. They walked in silence and made the world listen."
The comments from her followers reflected the impact of the tribute: "This is the true representation of my country that I need," wrote one; "This is how a Cuban woman should represent her country in Miss Universe," noted another.
Mia Dio, a Cuban-American born in Miami, daughter of a Cuban mother and an Argentine father, returns to Miss Universe Cuba after competing in the 2025 edition representing Isla de la Juventud, where she reached the Top 5 and won the title of Miss Popularity despite having suffered facial paralysis days before the final gala.
In a ranking of favorites published on June 9, Mia Dio held the second position with 6,500 interactions, trailing behind Daniela Reyes.
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