América Valdés, daughter of Cuban comedian and actor Alexis Valdés, posted a video on Instagram yesterday publicly denouncing the modeling agency Model Zone for owing her 270,000 Mexican pesos since March 2025 and for continuing to use her image without paying her a single peso.
"The modeling agency Model Zone owes me 270,000 pesos since March of last year," declared the 24-year-old in the video, in which she recounted over a year of unsuccessful attempts to collect what she is owed.
América explained that she worked with the agency for about a year and that initially she received partial payments until the agency stopped paying her altogether.
What worsened the situation was that, at some point, she found out almost by chance that Model Zone had been sold and had changed management without notifying her. "They didn't even have the decency to inform me where to go or whom to contact to receive my payments, and unfortunately, the new management hasn't paid me either," she reported.
After more than a year of attempts, she has only managed to recover 20,000 pesos out of the 270,000 owed. In the meantime, the agency has renewed commercials in which she participated and continues to exploit her image. "Currently, the current management of Model Zone has made money off my image without paying me," she stated.
América, who is currently represented by the MMA Runway agency and has their support in this process, warned that this case is not isolated. "There are many, many cases of abuse by this agency, and I think that if they could do this to me, I can’t even imagine what they might do to models coming from countries in very precarious situations, models who don’t even speak Spanish and are at a total disadvantage against the abuses of this agency," she stated.
The model and actress also warned about a silencing tactic: according to her, Model Zone often sends bots to harass those who publicly speak out, so she urged her followers to comment on the video to prevent the algorithm from suppressing it.
América also made a direct appeal to the industry: “I would like to urge production companies and casting directors not to continue working with abusive agencies,” and she added that “there needs to be a collective commitment among models, production companies, and casting directors to demand fair treatment from agencies towards their models.”
It’s not the first time that América Valdés speaks publicly about difficult situations: in 2021, she openly shared her experience with an abusive partner.
The young woman began her career as a model at the age of 14 and in 2022 debuted as an actress in the Mexican series "El Galán", the same year she filmed a movie with Jamie Foxx.
So far, Model Zone has not issued any public response to the accusations.
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