The Cuban content creator known as Anita la Cubanita (@anita.cubanita06) announced her return to Cuba just five months after emigrating to Costa Rica with her partner and small child, a decision she described as deliberate and that generated numerous reactions on TikTok.
In the first video the young woman recounted that she went to a market "for the last time" to buy grapes and strawberries to bring back to Cuba for her family, and she confessed: "I'm going back to Cuba, yes it's sad but true."
The next day, already at the airport past midnight, she posted a second video explaining her reasons: "I was in Costa Rica, and although I felt at peace, there was an emptiness that I couldn't explain. I missed things that may seem small but carry a lot of weight: my people, the culture, the way we talk, the way we laugh."
Anita acknowledged that not everyone will understand her choice: "Not everyone is going to understand this decision, and that's okay."
He also made it clear that he is not returning out of ignorance about the situation on the island: "I know perfectly well how things are, how they will be, the difficulties, the problems, everything, and this is not a naive decision; it is a conscious decision, and still, I chose to return."
Its central argument summarized the dilemma faced by many Cuban emigrants: "Sometimes peace is not where there are more things, but where you feel at home."
Anita's journey began in December 2025, when she emigrated with her family to Costa Rica, traveling through Nicaragua to San José, and she described the impact of seeing markets full of food: "I had never seen so much food together."
On December 26, 2025, she celebrated her first Christmas outside of Cuba, declaring, "I am proud because I took my family out of that hell." And in January 2026, she published a message of hope as she marked her first month abroad.
Before emigrating, Anita had to sell all her belongings to fund the trip, and in Costa Rica, she supported herself by monetizing her social media.
The return of Anita is not an isolated case. In January 2026, Maydalina Valdés Fernández, another Cuban in Costa Rica also announced her return to the island, unable to bear the family separation, and in April 2026 the tiktoker Yaniuska López announced her permanent return stating that "returning does not mean failing."
Stories like these reflect an increasingly visible conflict among Cubans who emigrate in search of economic stability and the emotional weight of family and cultural separation. Although thousands continue to leave the island driven by the crisis, some find in exile a sense of uprootedness that ultimately shapes their personal decisions.
"Time does not return, and if there is something that money cannot buy, it is time. All that time one loses being with family will not come back," summarized Valdés Fernández last January, a sentiment that seems to be shared by other Cuban emigrants who have decided to return to the island.
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