A Holguin resident currently living in El Salvador is impressed by the quality of life in that country, stating that, regardless of what you earn, you never lack food, in contrast to the situation in Cuba.
Istvan Zaldívar Ricardo, originally from the municipality of Mayarí in Holguín, considered that migrating to that country was a good decision due to the conditions he found, as he recounted in a video published by the Facebook page Our El Salvador.
"This man, who at 57 years old decided to flee from Cuba in search of a better future, confessed, 'There are many good things. With a minimum salary, one can live. Whether a person earns a lot or earns a little, they can eat well.'"
He pointed out that by working as a bricklayer's assistant, he can buy food, clothes, and cover other basic needs, a reality very different from the one he left behind in his home country.
He said that in Cuba he worked at a sugar mill, then at two security companies, "and the last job I had was taking care of security at a construction company."
According to Zaldívar, he gave up his house in Cuba, his family, and his job stability to start from scratch in El Salvador, working as a mason's assistant.
In 2019, both in March and November, he received a visit from a Salvadoran pastor, who was a friend of his, and gradually the idea of moving to El Salvador emerged.
To spend some time, see if I liked the country and could bring my family, that's how the idea came about. They raised the money and brought me," he recounted.
In his new country of residence, he has also been pleasantly impressed by the culinary culture.
In contrast to the precarious food situation in Cuba, in El Salvador you can try dishes such as the "pupusa," a type of rice or corn tortilla filled with cheese, beans, fried pork, among other ingredients.
The iguana and the tilapia are two of the foods that have made the best impression on him.
"I don't miss Cuban food because since my wife arrived, we have been eating what we used to eat there," he pointed out.
In a joking manner, she said that she does miss a cookie, "over there, there's one that if you bite into it, you leave a tooth behind."
"Here (in El Salvador) we eat what we want to eat, because there is everything," he pointed out. "Not like in other cases, where you can't eat," he expressed, hinting at the sad reality that exists in Cuba today.
Like any emigrant fleeing Cuba, Zaldívar said that last September he managed to get his wife out of the island: "And soon we will bring at least two of our children."
He also explained that both of them are doctors, as in the Caribbean country, it is the profession that "has the most possibilities to go on a mission, and that is where the situations that cannot be solved there (Cuba) are resolved."
Although not all stories of Cuban emigrants are the same, they do share the fact that starting life anew in another nation is tough, but preferable to staying in the Caribbean country, with its constant violations of human rights and a deepening economic crisis.
In May of last year, the Cuban YouTuber Yoliska Navarro, known as Yoliene, shared with her followers everything she has achieved after six months of living in the United States.
"You know more than anyone how much I wished and fought to be here, it still seems unbelievable to me," she said in a video on her YouTube account.
Yoliene revealed that this semester she has achieved very simple but unimaginable things in Cuba, such as becoming independent or having her own car. But the most important thing is that she has been able to travel and visit cities like Miami, New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle.
Also in May, a Cuban resident in Spain shared a video where he reflected on the feelings that overwhelm him when he visits a supermarket to do his weekly shopping.
The young man, who was in a Mercadona establishment - a Spanish supermarket chain - said in a video posted on the TikTok account robertalvablogs that for Cubans leaving the island for the first time, it is a "shock to see so much food and products" from different brands, something that is not seen in Cuba.
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