Born and raised in Maianga, Luanda, Angola, Maria Augusta Mendes da Cunha speaks Portuguese and English. She turned 23 on March 8, 2026.
The Maianga native represented Luanda in the 27th edition of Miss Angola Universo. She represented the country in the 74th edition of Miss Universe.
Miss Angola Universo 2024
Cunha traveled to Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa in May 2024 and Maputo, Mozambique in June 2024. On October 27, 2024, she competed against 24 other Miss Luanda 2024 candidates and won the title.
On November 30, 2024, Cunha represented Luanda at Miss Angola Universo 2024, competed against 18 other candidates at the Clube S in Luanda and won the title. On December 2, 2024, she had her first photoshoot as the titleholder in Belas, Luanda.
While reigning as Miss Angola Universo 2024, Cunha traveled to Sun City, North West Province, South Africa in January 2025 and Paris, France and Bastia, Haute-Corse, Corsica, France in June 2025. She visited Milan, Italy in October 2025.
Miss Universe 2025
Representing Angola, Cunha was unplaced at Miss Universe 2025 at the Impact Challenger Hall in Pak Kret, Nonthaburi, Thailand on November 21, 2025. She competed against 117 other candidates including Fatima Bosch of Mexico who won the title.
Runner-up to Bosch was Praveenar Singh of Thailand. The respective second, third and fourth runners-up were Stephany Abasali of Venezuela, Ahtisa Manalo of the Philippines and Olivia Yace of Cote d’Ivoire.
Had Cunha won, she would have been the second Miss Universe from Angola. Leila Lopes remains the only Angolan woman to win the title.
From Maianga to Pak Kret
Though separated by oceans, Maianga and Pak Kret both exemplify how intense urban density shapes the outskirts of major global capitals. Each functions as a crucial residential and economic engine tightly bound to its neighboring metropolis.
In Southwest Africa, Maianga is an ultra-dense urban district of Luanda. Packing over 727,000 residents into just 28 square kilometers, it is a bustling portrait of contrast. Paved commercial hubs, luxury hotels, and modern apartments sit alongside historic working-class enclaves and vast informal settlements (musseques), reflecting Angola’s rapid postwar urbanization.
By contrast, Pak Kret thrives as a highly organized satellite city of over 254,000 within the Bangkok Metropolitan Region. Perched along the Chao Phraya River, it blends rapid commercialization—home to the massive Impact exhibition complex and the MRT Pink Line—with preserved cultural pockets like the pottery-making island of Ko Kret.
While Maianga tackles the infrastructure challenges of hyper-urban growth from an oil-driven economy, Pak Kret showcases a transit-oriented Southeast Asian powerhouse. Together, they illustrate how localized districts absorb the demographic overflows of Luanda and Bangkok, evolving into distinct, self-contained urban centers of their own.
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