Marta Bunda is 25 years old, was born in Imola, and grew up like any other Italian girl. This year she won the title of Miss Bologna 2026, earning a place in the national Miss Italia pageant.
What no one expected was for that achievement to become a battleground. Her Afro-descendant features raised a question Italy has avoided for decades: what does it really mean to be Italian? Some conservative sectors speak of population replacement and an alleged loss of Mediterranean identity, as if nationality were measured by skin color.
It is not the first time this has happened. In 1996, Denny Méndez, of Dominican descent, received the same crown and faced the same controversy. Almost thirty years later, Marta’s story shows that the country still cannot agree on who its own definition of beauty belongs to.