A young Cuban woman living in Galicia shared a video on TikTok in which she listed the three mistakes she made upon arriving in Spain, with the aim of helping other emigrants avoid similar situations.
“Hello, I am Cuban living in Galicia, and today I want to share some real mistakes I made upon arriving in Spain, and I wish someone had told me about them,” begins the content creator, identified as @leyanetfrankedelp on the platform.
He explained that the first mistake was "falling into the trap of banks." "You arrive without knowing, trusting them, and they offer you credit cards and loans, which you accept out of ignorance. What you don't realize is that this creates a vicious cycle because the interest keeps rising. You take out another loan to pay off the one you already had, and there comes a point when you don't know how to escape from it," he pointed out.
He acknowledged that he did not act out of irresponsibility, but rather due to a lack of information. "To be honest, I didn't do it out of irresponsibility; I did it out of a lack of knowledge. I didn't know; having just arrived, I was offered it and I accepted because I needed it at that moment. Then, you all know what comes next," he commented.
His second mistake, he said, was "thinking that all people are good." "I came with an open heart, and because I trusted too much, I was scammed twice with very large sums of money," he recounted, and he indicated that he might share another video explaining how the scams happened "so that it doesn’t happen to you."
The third mistake, he continued, was “accepting jobs and situations out of fear of saying no.” “Out of necessity, and to start from scratch, I accepted things that I would not accept today, and I learned late that saying no is also a form of self-care. Above all, no amount of money is worth your dignity or your mental health,” he stated.
"If this video helped even one person, it was worth it," concluded the young woman, who received dozens of supportive and empathetic messages from other emigrants who identified with her experiences.
Among the comments, several users pointed out that the situations described "are very true" and that "no one explains these things when you arrive in another country." Others highlighted the importance of preparing before emigrating and being informed about banking procedures and common scams. "Ignorance does not exempt us from our individual responsibility," wrote one of them, while others thanked him for his honesty and stated that his testimony "will be useful for many foreigners."
Some internet users recalled that fraud and abuse "are not exclusive to Spain" and that "necessity leads people to accept things they should not," while others insisted that "nobody gives anything away" and that "banks always protect themselves."
The Cuban woman, who in previous videos has reflected on her adaptation process and the criticisms faced by migrant women, sparks debate again with a message focused on learning and resilience. Last December, she shared a video in which she responded to an offensive comment and defended the dignity of Cuban women, stating: “If your way of expressing an opinion is to offend and judge, that says more about you than it does about me.”
In early January, she published another testimony in which she spoke about the difficulties of adapting to the climate, schedules, and the Galician language, stating: “I adore Spain, I am extremely grateful to Spain because it has welcomed me, because it gave me a wonderful daughter, but there are things that, being Cuban, I haven't been able to get used to living here.”
Her most recent testimony adds to a series of publications in which she shares, from her personal experience, the challenges and lessons of migrant life in Spain.
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