A Cuban named César summarizes in a few words the reality faced by millions on the island: he makes a living by "inventing," and his only motivation to get up each day is to eat.
César's testimony was gathered in a street interview published on Facebook by content creator Covers Enoc, where the man candidly and straightforwardly explains how he survives in Cuba.
Inventing, how are you going to earn a living? How are you going to earn a living if you're not inventing?" César responds when asked what he lives on.
His method: selling cigarettes and doing phone top-ups. "Cigarettes, you know. It's normal here in the business, making small top-ups. What else are you going to do?" he says.
When asked what motivates him to get up every morning, the answer is as straightforward as it is striking: "Eating, because everyone gets up to look for food in the morning, food in the afternoon, and that's it, and smoking and having a beer every now and then, a little cup."
César also illustrates with concrete numbers why vacations are an impossible luxury for most Cubans.
"If a car ride to the beach costs 8 thousand pesos and you have to bring 20 thousand for food and an additional 20 or 30 thousand for other expenses. Imagine that the average salary of a worker here is 3 thousand pesos. Do the math to see where you can go," he points out.
His plans for the vacation reflect that reality: "This vacation, I'll just stay right here."
The economic data supports what César describes on the streets. According to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), the average salary in Cuba was around 6,830 Cuban pesos at the end of 2025, equivalent to barely between 13 and 16 dollars at the informal exchange rate.
The economist Javier Pérez Capdevila estimates that surviving in Cuba requires between 40,000 and 50,000 Cuban pesos monthly per person, which means that the state salary covers less than 20% of the basic cost of living.
The Cuban economy has experienced a contraction of 23% since 2019, with an additional projected decline of 7.2% of GDP in 2026, according to the Economic Intelligence Unit. 80% of Cubans perceive the current crisis as worse than the Special Period of the 1990s, according to data from the Food Monitor Program published in March 2026.
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