A Cuban emigrant identified on TikTok as Iris (@amymodovivo) posted a nearly four-minute video this Monday in which she honestly describes the feeling of strangeness and loss of identity she experiences each time she returns to Cuba after years of living abroad.
"When you’ve been away for many years, you sort of get used to where you went to live, and when you go back to your country of origin, you feel a bit out of place," explains Iris in the video, summarizing in just a few words a dilemma shared by thousands of Cubans in the diaspora.
Iris describes this state as a "limbo": "That place that was your life, that was your world, that was your everything, you no longer belong to that place, and consequently, you also do not belong to the country where you emigrated, because no matter where you go, you'll always be a foreigner."
One of the most concrete examples it offers is that of unannounced visits: in Cuba, it is completely normal for someone to arrive at seven in the morning for coffee without having called beforehand, something that used to seem natural to him but now makes him feel uncomfortable.
"It's so mechanical the life outside of Cuba, that when you go to Cuba and encounter a different reality, you feel like an alien," he says.
Even with her own family, she notices the change: when her father speaks to her in a loud voice, she asks him to lower his tone, a gesture that would have never happened before. "You don't do it on purpose; you really change internally without noticing, you're not the same person," she acknowledges.
An especially emotional element of the testimony is the concern for cultural legacy. Iris shares that her eldest son, born and raised outside of Cuba, does not listen to Cuban music nor feels a connection to the island, despite her efforts to instill that legacy in him since he was born.
"He doesn’t have a complete legacy tied to Cuba; for him, the country is where he lives, and his identity is his home," Iris laments, adding that while she understands it, it hurts her.
This type of testimony is not isolated. In April 2025, another Cuban sparked a debate upon returning to the island and expressing that "you feel strange in your own land," while in December of that year a Cuban in Spain revealed local customs that surprise emigrants, such as having dinner close to midnight.
In April of this year, a Cuban woman in Italy touched hearts on TikTok by sharing that her "too loud" laughter attracted criticism, standing up for her identity against the norms of her host country.
The phenomenon reflects a broader reality: Cuba has experienced one of the largest migration waves in its recent history since 2021, driven by the economic crisis, power outages, and political repression, and many of these emigrants navigate between two worlds without fully feeling a part of either.
Iris closes her video with a phrase that summarizes everything: "You are no longer the same, you are no longer the same. It's like something changed inside, and it's so sad."
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