The Cuban comedian Ramiro González recounted on the podcast "Escuela de Nada" how his two parents, both doctors who participated in international missions for the Cuban regime, returned with the same devastating message: the Revolution had taken their lives away.
The testimony, posted this Sunday on X, is part of the episode titled "The Reality of Cuba in 2026," recorded last Wednesday and described by those who shared it as "an instant classic".
González recounts that when he was 13 years old, his father was sent on a medical mission to Haiti. Upon his return, he did not remain silent: "These people are thieves. Everything we've been told is a lie," he said.
The comparison was direct and painful. In Haiti, unlike Cuba, there was food, and those with the will could move forward. "Those people are indeed in tough situations, but those who have a little common sense and want to get ahead can do so. Moreover, there is food there," the father described, according to his son's account.
Years later, Ramiro's mother —also a doctor— was sent on a mission to Botswana, in Africa. Initially, she had been more aligned with the official narrative and did not fully share her ex-husband's critical perspective, but upon returning from Africa, she broke down in tears.
"I didn’t completely agree with your dad, but these people stole my life," she confessed in tears about the regime.
The mother added a revelation that Ramiro described as particularly shocking. When he was a child, she would tell him to eat his food "because children in Africa have none." Upon returning from Botswana, she clarified the cruel irony of that phrase: "It wasn’t like that. It was you who didn’t have food."
The account by González also addresses the indoctrination that the regime imposes from childhood. "When you sit in the classroom, the first thing they do in schools in Cuba is 10 minutes of political information, where the world is coming to an end and we are progressing and it hurts them," the comedian explained.
Since primary school, Cuban children recite the motto of the José Martí Pioneer Organization: "Pioneers for communism, we will be like Che."
The testimony of Ramiro's parents falls within a well-documented pattern: the regime retains the majority of the salaries of doctors sent abroad, forces collaborators to hand over their passports to supervisors, and prohibits them from freely interacting with the local population.
Human rights organizations have classified this system as modern slavery, and it is estimated that medical missions generated approximately 11 billion dollars annually for the regime between 2011 and 2015.
The full episode is available on YouTube and was described by the podcast’s page as one of those chapters that becomes "an instant classic" for portraying realities of Cuba "that we can't even imagine unless someone who has experienced it tells us."
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