A Cuban resident in Italy shared on TikTok the cultural clash she experienced with her Italian partner due to the everyday use of affectionate expressions such as "my love," "my life," and "my heart," which are common in Cuba but foreign to European culture.
@ailetsantos posted the video last Thursday, in which she explains that her Italian boyfriend would get confused every time her friends from the Island wrote to her using those terms of endearment. "Many times, my friends from Cuba would write to me and just by saying my love, happy birthday, my life, thank you so much, darling, how are you? I thought it was as if they weren't my friends," the creator shares.
The misunderstanding reached a point where the Italian began to suspect that those "friends" were not just friends. "It took me a long time to explain to them that in Cuba it's normal to see someone you don’t know on the street and say, ‘my love, my life, good morning, how are you?’," Ailet shares in the 42-second video.
To illustrate the custom, the young woman provides concrete examples from everyday life in Cuba: a waiter who asks, "my dear, how would you like your water?" or her own mother, who enters the house and greets with, "my dear, good morning, how are you?"
It was precisely that direct contact with his surroundings that helped the fiancé understand the reality. "It took time to explain to him; he has obviously talked to my friends, to my family, and he realizes that these are normal things," Ailet points out, acknowledging that the issue "has been a topic of discussion" within the couple on more than one occasion.
In Cuba, these expressions are part of the colloquial dialect as a demonstration of warmth and social empathy, without any romantic connotation. A Cuban TikToker clearly summarized it in a previous post: "It's our way of showing empathy, it's our dialect. It's not that we want to flirt with anyone."
The video is part of a growing trend among Cubans living in Italy who share their intercultural experiences on TikTok under the hashtag #cubanaenitalia. According to data from the Italian National Institute of Statistics, more than 15,000 Cubans currently reside in the country.
It's not the first time that this type of content generates massive identification. In August 2025, a Swedish woman went viral imitating her Cuban husband with phrases like "my love," surpassing 400,000 views. In April 2026, the Cuban Blanca De Dios also with her Spanish partner Alberto, whom she met in a bar in Barcelona.
Ailet ended the description of her video with a question directed at other Latinas in relationships with Europeans: "Tell me I'm not the only one, does this happen to you too?" This invitation captures the spirit of community and humor with which the Cuban diaspora navigates its cultural differences from abroad.
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