The Cuban tiktoker @lesyanisportilla, based in Spain, has touched thousands of people with her heartfelt testimony where she explains why she decided to leave her homeland.
"Do you know why I emigrated from Cuba? Because Cuba was not just a country that took away my food, but it also prohibited me from eating things that I saw being offered to thousands of tourists in my own country," says the young woman at the beginning of a video shared a few weeks ago.
"Cuba took away my freedom, Cuba took away my hope, Cuba took away my right to speak, to express myself," she continues, visibly affected. Despite the deep love she feels for her homeland, she insists that she had to leave: "I had to go, almost by force, because I was going to live in a country where I had no hope."
In her message, @lesyanisportilla also expresses the feeling of helplessness in the face of the lack of change on the island: “Living in a country where you have no hopes... It's not cowardice to leave; cowardice is staying behind because you won't fight. The Cuban people are not going to fight, and they will not break free from that dictatorship unless someone from outside Cuba helps or unless the whole people, all of Cuba, comes together.”
"The only thing left for those of us outside is to hope that at some point this will change and that among all Cubans, both outside and inside the island, there will be such great unity that we can finally rise up and bring down that dictatorship that keeps us so oppressed, with a boot on our heads, preventing us from standing up," he concludes.
Her words have generated thousands of reactions on TikTok, many of them filled with support and empathy from both Cubans and citizens of other countries. Several messages emphasize that the pain expressed is not directed at Cuba as a nation, but rather at the system that has caused this exodus. There are also many messages of hope, calls for unity, and similar stories from those who, for personal or family reasons, have also been compelled to leave.
This testimony adds to others already shared by @lesyanisportilla. In January 2025, he compared the economic situation of Spain with that of the island. In July 2023, she explained how many Cuban families have to share a single towel for bathing: “One for everyone. That’s how life is in Cuba.”
Stories like hers resonate in tone and content with other voices that have been heard on social media from exile. One of these is Yexela González, a Cuban mother living in Madrid, who stated in June: “I was happy in Cuba (…) but when I became a mother, I understood that I had to leave my country.” In her video, she explained that her children dream of simple things, like visiting a zoo or a water park: “A Cuban parent has to choose which dream to fulfill for their child each year, often only partially.” “I don’t want to be a grandmother imprisoned in Cuba. I want to be just a plane ticket away,” she added. Her testimony also circulated widely on social media.
Another deeply moving story is that of Carlos Camilo, a Cuban father who emigrated to Chile five months ago with his son, who has been diagnosed with a rare neurodegenerative disease. “Today marks 5 months since we arrived in this country, Chile. A mix of joy and sadness overwhelms us every time we reach another month,” he wrote on Facebook. “It hurts to understand that everything we have here, could be so much better back there, but it’s not possible.”
Stories like these show that behind every departure, there is a profound reason: a child, a life, a hope for the future. From different parts of the world, testimonies from Cubans like @lesyanisportilla, Yexela González, and Carlos Camilo speak of difficult decisions, but also of love, dignity, and a desire for freedom.
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