Amid the energy crisis and uncertainty affecting Cuba, Sandro Castro again stirred controversy with a video in which he turned a gasoline can into his “new love”.
Beyond the eccentric gesture, a visual detail has sparked political interpretations: the phrase in English that appears on the wall of the bar where the scene begins —“Words Create Lies. Pain Can Be Trusted”— associated with the Japanese film Audition (1999).
Audition, an apparent romantic drama, turns out to be a disturbing film that shifts into a disquieting psychological thriller where idealized love ultimately reveals manipulation, deception, and extreme suffering.
The film explores the distance between appearance and reality, between what is said and what is truly experienced—a contrast that seems to translate precisely to the current Cuban context, and which, by chance or through a burst of sensitivity from the privileged jester, Sandrito or his "helpers" appear to have decoded.
In an island saturated by decades of official slogans and unfulfilled promises, the phrase takes on an inevitable political weight.
“Words create lies” can be read as a direct critique of the "continuity" discourse led by Miguel Díaz-Canel, which is based on worn-out narratives of resistance, sovereignty, and stability, while the population faces prolonged blackouts, fuel shortages, and economic decline.
The second part—“Pain can be reliable”—introduces a more uncomfortable idea: certainty arises from material experience, from the everyday suffering that cannot be disguised with rhetoric.
In the current context, where Donald Trump's maximum pressure policy has tightened the financial and energy environment of the regime, the pain has intensified. But for many Cubans, that same pain could open the door to a long-awaited structural change.
That the grandson of the dictator Fidel Castro includes this quote in his performance does not seem coincidental. His romantic act with a gasoline can — a symbol of scarcity — thus turns into a double metaphor: love as an illusion and crisis as a tangible truth.
Under that interpretation, the message could be seen as a subversive gesture, suggesting that the official narrative is no longer convincing and that reality —no matter how harsh— will ultimately prevail.
In critical times for Cuba, the phrase chosen by Sandro Castro resonates beyond aesthetic provocation. It can be read as an uncomfortable nod to a society that, weary of words, now only trusts in actions.
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