The young Cuban Naty Cue went viral this week with a video in which she shares how her self-esteem has completely transformed since she emigrated to Spain, going from feeling "ugly, horrible" in Cuba to receiving constant compliments on the streets and in Spanish nightclubs.
The video, published last Friday under the description "In Cuba it's ugly and in Spain it's beautiful", has garnered over 1,000 comments and has sparked a very active debate among the Cuban emigrant community.
"In Cuba, I always felt ugly, horrible. With my self-esteem in the gutter," Naty confesses at the beginning of the clip. Everything changed, she says, the moment she set foot in Spain: "Since I arrived in Spain, my self-esteem soared because I started receiving a lot of compliments and catcalls on the street."
What marked her the most was something seemingly simple: that a girl stopped to tell her she was beautiful. "I never had the experience of a girl telling me how beautiful I am. It was spectacular," she recalls. For her, that moment encapsulates everything she did not experience on the island.
Naty acknowledges that she arrived in Spain in a very fragile emotional state. "I came with my self-esteem so damaged, so broken, that arriving here and encountering this is incredible for me," she explains. She adds, "I still can't believe it, I can't accept it."
The young woman also reflects on the phenomenon with honesty: "It's amazing how your perception changes when you're in one place and you're just an average girl, and then you go to another place and suddenly everyone starts telling you that you're pretty and attractive."
However, Naty does not shy away from the uncomfortable question: are the compliments genuine or do they stem from her being seen as an "exotic beauty"? "Is it because I'm an exotic beauty as they say? I need to get out of this dilemma, this mystery," she says at the end of the video, inviting her followers to share their thoughts.
The comments arrived quickly. Many Cuban and Latina women living abroad identified with her story, sharing similar experiences of personal transformation when moving to a different country. Several pointed out that the contrast relates to the different beauty standards between Cuba and Europe, while others directly highlighted the factor of the "exoticization" of Latin American women in Spain.
The phenomenon described by Naty is not new among the Cuban diaspora. Many emigrants document on social media that cultural shock that comes with discovering that the perception of one's own image can change radically depending on the environment. The so-called "glow up" of migration —the personal reinvention that accompanies the process of emigrating— is one of the most recurring topics on TikTok among Cubans living in Spain.
Naty closes her video with a heartfelt thank you: "Thank you to all the Spaniards who have made me feel beautiful, to all the Spaniards who have helped raise my self-esteem. Thank you from the bottom of my heart."
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