Denny Méndez

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Denny Méndez (born on July 20, 1978 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) was a former beauty queen turned model and actress who represented Italy in the 1997 Miss Universe pageant.

A native of the Dominican Republic, Méndez relocated to Montecatini, Italy as a very young child with her mother in search of a better life. Many of Méndez's aunts had relocated to Italy and had married Italian citizens, and after divorcing Denny's biological father, she relocated to Italy and married an Italian man whom she met while he was on vacation in the Dominican Republic. ^[1] Méndez, who had no formal training as a model was studying to become a tourist guide prior to enrolling in the pageant.

She first entered in Miss Dominican Republic Universe 1996 in December 16, 1995 were she represented the Distrito Nacional and placed 1st Runner Up. She went to the Dominican Republic for a year that time so she entered the pageant but first she entered Miss Distrito Nacional Universo were she won. She then represented the capital in the pageant. Then she went back to Italy were she entered Miss Italia.

Her election as Miss Italia on September 7, 1996 in the Italian town of Salsomaggiore caused a minor scandal throughout that nation. It was the first time that a woman of non-Italian ancestry was elected to represent the country in an international beauty pageant and some Italian citizens saw it as a wake-up call for Italy to close its borders to further immigration. Two members of the judging panel were suspended for saying that a black woman could not represent Italian beauty. The news of the first black Miss Italy was carried to millions overseas via the popular African-American periodical, Jet Magazine. The author of the article wrote:

“Denny Méndez . . . born in the Dominican Republic to a naturalized Italian mother and an Italian [step]father, was named Miss Italy after receiving nine million telephone votes from the television audience.” Nine million Italians voted to shatter the prism of race, just by watching a TV beauty pageant and phoning in their votes! Beauty is, indeed, in the eye of the beholder, and the eyes of the world today are quite capable of seeing past skin color. The Italian people’s choice was Denny Méndez, notwithstanding the objections of a pageant official who said, “A black girl can’t be Miss Italy. It’s not in the rules.”^[2]

Upon being elected Miss Italia, Méndez responded to the controversy with a brief reply:

""I know I don't represent Italian beauty, but they elected me," she said, "so what am I supposed to do--refuse?"^[3]

Surprisingly with all the scandal surrounding her election, Denny was selected as one of the 10 semifinalists in Miss Universe 1997 in Miami Beach, Florida, U.S. on May 16, 1997. She has the second highest semifinals scores and advanced to be a top 6 finalist, but she did not score well in the next interview round to become the top 3. The crown was eventually won by Miss USA Brook Mahealani Lee. However, the publicity from the pageant helped her land modeling jobs among many of Europe's leading fashion houses and magazines.

Today, Méndez is a popular television personality in Italy. She remains very active in the modeling world and has become a budding actress. Besides several theatrical productions, she has guest starred on many Italian sitcoms, dramas, and feature films, she also had a small role in the film Ocean's Twelve starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon. Méndez is fluent in Italian and has working knowledge of both English and Spanish.