A Cuban from Palma Soriano, in Santiago de Cuba, went viral on Facebook by showcasing his solution for washing clothes without electricity: a stick with a perforated plastic bottle that agitates the clothes in a container with water and soap, which he named "hand washer".
The video, posted by Alexei Sadin Arias, has garnered over 509,000 views, 11,128 likes, and 746 comments on the social network.
"Well, gentlemen, I came across this new invention that is emerging here in Cuba and at least here in Palma Seriano," says Sadin in the 49-second clip, where he demonstrates the complete washing process.
The author himself acknowledged that the device is not exclusively Cuban: "This is referred to, I don't know if in other countries, as a Chinese stick. Mexican Chinese," he explained, before concluding that it is "a good invention, a manual hand washer."
The reaction on social media was immediate and divided between laughter, indignation, and admiration.
Carlos Camilo captured the sentiment of many with a succinct, "We're going back to the Stone Age," while CubicheServices celebrated that "creativity knows no bounds" and joked that Alexei Sadin Arias would get serious about the invention, to which the author himself responded with laughter.
Silvia Gomez warned that "the pain in my arms is going to be worse than if I wash the traditional way," although Vivian Sánchez replied that "it's two in one, it washes and works out your muscles." Mayra Ester Ramirez was more straightforward about the physical risks: "And the bursitis I get is severe."
Other users pointed out that the invention is not new in the region: Carmencita Bermudez Cartagena recalled that "this is how we washed clothes in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria," when they were left without electricity for months.
Roberto Barrera Gracial summed it up with a phrase that many shared: "For God's sake, the more the need, the more creativity."
Maria Antonia Lima, on the other hand, proposed something more ambitious: "They should give the Cubans the Nobel Prize for creativity and survival."
However, in Cuba the context is different: it is not a specific emergency, but rather a structural crisis.
According to Diario de Las Amércias, the country ended 2025 as the worst electrical year in decades, experiencing outages of up to 20 hours daily in some regions. The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, acknowledged that 2026 "will be a difficult year" and that we will not eliminate the blackouts, as reported by Infobae.
In that scenario, inventions like this cease to be mere curiosities and become records of the deterioration of daily life on the island.
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