Denny Andreína Méndez de la Rosa (born 20 July 1978 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) is a Dominican-Italian actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder who represented Italy at Miss Universe 1997 and placed in the Top 6.
Her first venture in the beauty pageant circuit occurred when she was a candidate for in the title of Miss Dominican Republic 1996 on 16 December 1995, when she represented the Distrito Nacional and placed second runner-up.
[2] 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.
The author of the article was quoted in American Outlook: "Denny Méndez ... born in the Dominican Republic, was named Miss Italy after receiving nine million telephone votes from the television audience."
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.