Lucy María González Machado, a Cuban influencer known on TikTok as @thezhoufam, shared in her latest video what she describes as "the biggest culture shock" she has experienced since moving to Switzerland six months ago. According to her, it all happened on her first day using the sauna at the gym she had just joined.
“I was very excited to do my workout and then go relax in my sauna,” she recounted. “I packed my backpack, my bikini, my flip-flops, everything I thought I needed to enter the sauna… well, at least what I thought I needed.”
As she peeked into one of the rooms, she saw a completely naked man through the glass door. “I started to back up,” she remembers. She thought that maybe she had entered the wrong space: “Maybe ‘oh God, this was the men's sauna and not the women's.’” However, when she asked a woman who was present, she clarified, “No, no, this is mixed.” “I don’t pay attention to those things, so don’t worry, just bring a bikini and go in and do your thing,” she replied.
Lucy appeared bewildered by the experience: “All that chaos, you know… and you feel like from the glass door, looking at the ceiling, the wooden wall, anything but outside.” She concluded with a phrase that resonated with thousands of users: “My Latin modesty doesn’t allow me.” Although she claims she will keep going to the sauna, she will do so "during the times when there’s no one else around."
The comments on the video came pouring in. “Such a Swiss thing, I'm dying,” wrote one user. “My Latino modesty, it represents me,” said another. The phrase “And what did the Chinese say?” —referring to her husband— was echoed among dozens of internet users. The influencer herself replied, “He froze. He says he doesn’t want to go.”
Several migrants shared similar experiences in countries like Germany, Austria, Japan, and Sweden, where the mixed use and nudity in saunas and changing rooms is a common practice. “In Germany, it's the same; they ask you to leave if you enter wearing a bikini,” “It happened to me in Japan; I couldn't enter until everyone left,” or “In Korea, everyone was unshaven; I was the odd one out,” were just a few of the anecdotes that emerged during the conversation.
The impact of this video confirms Lucy's ability to connect with a wide audience through personal stories, where the everyday becomes universal. Her charisma, authenticity, and narrative style have fostered a strong community of followers among Cuban emigrants and other Latino communities.
It is not the first time Lucy González has gone viral for her observations about life in Switzerland. At the beginning of May, she shared a video where she listed five curiosities about the country, from the quality of life of cows to the existence of bunkers in buildings. On that occasion, she joked that “cows have a better quality of life than you and me”.
In that same publication, he also highlighted the electrical stability, the organization of the country, and the lack of international news in the Swiss press, based on his personal experience.
The experience of Lucy adds to a growing list of anecdotes from Cuban women documenting their processes of adaptation in other countries. Just a few days ago, a Cuban mother in Spain went viral after sharing how embarrassed she felt when other parents handed her cash to pay for her daughter's birthday—a common practice for many, but completely foreign to her. “I was mortified,” she said in her video.
Also in Venezuela, another Cuban starred in a funny anecdote after using the verb “coger” with Caribbean ease, unaware of the impact of that word in the Venezuelan context. “It was epic,” she stated, recalling the moment when everyone looked at her after saying “I’m caught”.
An honest look at migrant life
Stories like Lucy's reflect the nuances and challenges of migration, where the comic, the perplexing, and the human intertwine. They are tales that invite empathy, intercultural understanding, and above all, encourage us to laugh at ourselves on the journey of adapting to new realities.
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