A young Cuban identified on TikTok as Day (@dayamelia11) shared in a video published on April 10 how she was discriminated against during her job search in Mexico, solely because of her nationality.
"They humiliated me while looking for a job just because I am Cuban," says the young woman at the beginning of her testimony, which lasts just over three minutes and has garnered more than 10,100 views and 529 likes.
Day explains that everything started in Cuba, where he lost his job unexpectedly: "I left a place where there were no more doors open; the job shut down without warning, like when the light goes off and you’re left in the dark."
Carrying that situation with him, he emigrated to Mexico with the hope of getting ahead, but soon he encountered discrimination.
During a job interview, an employer asked her if she was Cuban, and the young woman was emphatic in describing the tone: "They asked me if I was Cuban, and believe me, it wasn’t curiosity; it was judgment."
"I felt a tightness in my chest, but it wasn't the words that hurt as much as the way they were delivered, that way that makes you feel smaller," she recounted.
Nevertheless, Day did not succumb to humiliation: "I left there with tears in my eyes but holding onto my dignity tightly."
The testimony of this Cuban reflects a reality that thousands of migrants face in Mexico: according to the National Survey on Discrimination (ENADIS, 2022), 28.8% of the migrant population in that country has experienced discrimination, and 56.4% believe that their rights are not respected.
In cities like Tapachula, the situation is particularly harsh. Brian Balcón, organizer of the migrant caravan in October 2025, summarized it this way: "One cannot live here because there is a lot of xenophobia, there are no jobs, and the jobs available require up to 12 hours of work for 150 pesos a day."
That caravan, in which between 1,200 and 1,500 Cuban migrants marched from Tapachula to Mexico City, was a direct response to those conditions of xenophobia and labor misery.
The migratory context also weighs heavily: since January 2025, the cancellation of the CBP One program and the tightening of immigration policies under the Trump administration have driven more and more Cubans to choose Mexico as their final destination instead of continuing north.
But Day's story does not end in defeat. He continued searching until he found a different employer: "I arrived at a place where they didn't ask me where I came from but what I knew how to do, where they didn't see my nationality as a flaw but as part of my story."
Other Cuban women have shared similar experiences of overcoming challenges in Mexico, where initial rejection did not prevent them from finding their path.
Day closed his video with a direct message to those experiencing similar situations: "Being Cuban is carrying strength in the soul, it's knowing how to rise even when everything falls apart," and he added that rejection can turn into guidance: "Sometimes rejection is not a loss, it's direction."
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