Lea García, a young Spanish woman from a Cuban family, shares her life on TikTok as @leagarciia02. She posted a 42-second video in which she details how much she spent at a restaurant during her visit to the island, generating over 15,000 views and sparking a broad debate about the country's economic reality.
In the video, Lea describes the entire experience: they arrived at a venue that she found "very well decorated," ordered a Malta as an appetizer, and then the starters arrived, which included French fries, cheese croquettes, and fried green plantains with pork. The main dishes were ropa vieja with potatoes and arroz moro, which she referred to as "arroz con gris." However, the wait extended to nearly two hours, and the food arrived served in takeout containers, a detail that negatively caught her attention.
The most revealing part of the video is the economic reflection made by the young woman as she compares spending with the Cuban minimum wage. "It's quite expensive; I always compare it with salaries, but it's true: if a salary is 2,100 and you spend that on a double portion of meat, that's a lot," she noted in the video.
That comparison reflects a staggering reality. the official minimum wage in Cuba has been frozen at 2,100 pesos since January 2021, with no increases announced for 2026. The average salary reached 6,830 pesos by the end of November 2025, according to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), but independent economists estimate that surviving on the island requires between 40,000 and 50,000 pesos per person each month.
In this context, eating at one of the most affordable restaurants in Havana costs around 13,000 Cuban pesos, equivalent to about 26 dollars at the informal exchange rate, which represents between two and six minimum monthly wages. In mid-range establishments, prices range from 2,500 to 2,800 pesos per person, and in the more expensive places, appetizers can cost between 4,000 and 6,600 pesos.
For a European tourist, however, these figures are relatively accessible when converted to euros, which partly explains the increasing presence of Spanish visitors documenting their culinary experiences in Cuba. the Cuban peso depreciated by almost 48% against the dollar in the last year, rising from 345 to 515 pesos per dollar in the informal market, while the accumulated inflation between 2024 and 2026 exceeds 200%.
Lea García is not the only Spaniard who has sparked conversation on social media with this type of content. In February, another creator traveled solo to Cuba during the crisis, describing the experience as "one of the toughest and most incredible trips." Spain is the second largest source of tourists to Cuba, with around 150,000 visitors in 2025, out of a total of approximately 2.4 million tourists that the island received that year.
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