A Cuban grandmother living in Miami who suffers from Alzheimer's became the subject of a video that has touched thousands of people on social media, when she asked her family member for a peso to take the bus and return to Cuba, where she believes she still lives with her mom and dad.
The video was posted last Friday on TikTok by the user @bili395rodriguez3 and shows the sweet interaction between the elderly woman and her caregiver, who patiently and lovingly goes along with her.
"What is it that you want?" asks the relative. "I need you to lend me a peso." "For what?" "To go to Cuba." "Why do you want to go to Cuba if you live here?" The elderly woman replies without hesitation, "No, I have to go home, to my mom's house."
When they explain to her that they are in Estados Unidos, the woman remains unfazed. She calmly accepts to be driven in a car, not realizing the geographical impossibility of what she is asking.
"Where are you going?" "To Punta Brava, to the hospital where I live." "Do you know where we are now?" "In the United States." "And are we going to Cuba?" "By car." "Okay, I'll take you." "Alright."
Punta Brava is a neighborhood in the municipality of La Lisa, in Havana, which suggests that the elderly woman is originally from Havana.
The scene reflects one of the most characteristic symptoms of Alzheimer's in moderate to advanced stages: temporal and spatial disorientation that leads patients to live in the past, confuse their current residence with that of their childhood, and search for people who are no longer present.
For this grandmother, Miami does not exist as her home. Her reality is Cuba, her family of origin, and her life before migration.
The video has generated a wave of empathy in the Cuban exile community, with thousands of comments from individuals who acknowledge having experienced similar situations with their own elders.
This case reflects a growing reality: that of Cuban older adults who have emigrated to the United States and now face neurodegenerative diseases far from their homeland. In these patients, long-term memory—Cuba, childhood, parents, the neighborhood—remains intact while recent memory, such as life in Miami and their current family, fades away.
Latinos in the United States have a 50% higher risk of developing Alzheimer's than non-Hispanic whites, according to the Edward R. Roybal Institute at the University of Southern California, and it is projected that by 2060 there will be 3.5 million Latinos affected by the disease in that country.
This is not the first time a video of this kind has shaken the Cuban community. In January of this year, the case of a Cuban grandmother who returned to the island from the United States went viral, as she had to come back due to the physical and emotional deterioration she suffered there. And in June 2024, a video of a Cuban grandfather residing in the United States who dreamed of returning to Cuba circulated on social media.
The Cuban community in Miami is one of the largest and oldest in the United States, making this issue particularly poignant for those who care for their elders far from the land that these seniors still call home.
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