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"Cubano pan con bistec" has become a colloquial term to describe those who live in the United States, enjoy the freedoms and benefits of the American system, but maintain condescending attitudes or rhetoric towards the Cuban regime.
The term has a pejorative connotation, and its origin is attributed to the Cuban influencer Alexander Otaola, who, after an interview with the presenter Irela Bravo, coined the phrase and asserted that the popular actress was a great representative of that social group in Miami.
“The 'steak sandwich' is what we call in this program that community of Cubans who aim to achieve a status in the United States, a peaceful life, without having to take a stand against the dictatorship in order to return again and again and show the people on the island how much they have prospered while they remain in misery,” Otaola noted.
The concept refers, in a critical and sarcastic tone, to emigrants who frequently travel to Cuba, avoid discussing politics in the United States, and justify their departure from their homeland solely for economic reasons. They are the Cubans who return to the island “to party” without questioning the power that pushed them to emigrate.
In the digital spaces of exile, the phrase "pan con bistec" is also used to refer to those who, despite living in the United States, replicate the same vices of the system they left behind or idealize their past on the island.
The expression was recently taken up by figures from the entertainment industry and encapsulates a very real phenomenon: that of the Cuban who has not quite broken away from Cuba nor fully embraced their life outside of it.
Beyond the joke, the term "pan con bistec" reflects a generational and political tension within the Cuban community abroad, as well as the divide between those who maintain an active commitment against the regime and those who prefer neutrality, silence, or nostalgia.
In short, the “cubano pan con bistec” is more than just an ironic label. It is a portrait of an identity torn between memory and comfort, between critique and indifference, between the pan con bistec from the corner in Miami and the street that is still dreamed of in Havana.
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