A young Cuban identified on TikTok as Lauren Lotti (@laurenlotti1) excited thousands of people by giving her grandfather a vice in Cuba, a tool that the elderly artisan had wanted for his workshop for a long time.
The gesture was made possible thanks to the solidarity of her followers on social media, who contributed the necessary funds for the purchase. "With the help I received from my followers, my uncle and I went out to buy him something he had been wanting for his workshop for a long time," Lauren explained in the video.
After visiting several places with her uncle, they found the tool and bought it for 20,000 Cuban pesos, equivalent to about 40 dollars. "I'm so excited to get home because I know he's going to be really happy since he's always wanted to have one," Lauren said, attempting to hide the vise with laughter before arriving.
The moment of surprise was the most emotional part of the clip. Lauren asked her grandfather to close his eyes and hold out his hands. The old man's reaction said it all: "Goodness! What is this? A mola! My goodness, without tools!"
The video not only showcased the gift but also the grandfather's talent as a craftsman. Lauren presented his creations: wheelbarrows, a barber chair, a wedge for propping children, and even a small bus. "My grandfather has made amazing things," she remarked, although she noted that he "lost the little bus due to things in my country," a phrase that encapsulates the daily challenges faced by Cubans in just a few words.
In Cuba, a bench vise —a basic tool in any workshop around the world for holding pieces while working— is a difficult item to obtain. Many craftsmen, like Lauren's grandfather, make homemade versions with recycled materials due to the scarcity of imported tools, a culture of ingenuity that has roots in the Special Period of the 1990s.
This type of content is part of a recurring phenomenon on TikTok. In May 2025, a grandfather in Camagüey received a bicycle from his granddaughter as a birthday gift in a video that also went viral. In July of the same year, another young woman made a surprise trip to Cuba to embrace her grandparents, generating a similar reaction on social media. And in August, a Cuban who returned to the island was initially not recognized by her family, and then they cried together.
These gestures reflect the reality of thousands of Cuban families separated by migration, where those who are abroad seek ways to support and uplift those who remain on the island. The reverse also happens: a Cuban woman surprised her mother while she was sleeping in a video that touched her digital community.
"Thank you all so much because thanks to you, I was able to buy this for my grandpa," Lauren concluded, addressing the followers who made the elderly artisan's dream possible.
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