The actor and comedian Mario Sardiñas, the popular Chequera from Vivir del Cuento, gifted Cuban mothers possibly the most ingenious —and most honest— greeting of the day this Sunday: a 39-second reel recorded "from above" in which he turns the complete catalog of calamities on the island into an unintentional and everlasting tribute to moms.
The video, published today on the Facebook page "Chequera Vivir del cuento," congratulates mothers, beginning on a staircase, with a solemn declaration: "Showbiz, this is a high tribute to the most divine being that the planet Earth has given. Mothers."
From that point on, the argument was as simple as it was charming and devastating. "Did you know that Cuba is the only country in the world where the word 'mother' is mentioned the most?" Chequera asked with all the seriousness of the situation, before outlining the inventory of daily disasters that justify such a statistic.
The list left nothing out: "If they cut off the power, what do you say? Wow! Unbelievable. There's no money in the ATM, oh my goodness! 5,000 for gas: for crying out loud! The connection dropped: for heaven's sake!" Four calamities, four maternal invocations.
And before concluding with his enthusiastic double congratulations—torn between a bottle of oil (which costs thousands of pesos on the Island) and a bouquet of flowers—, Chequera dropped a phrase that was deliberately left unfinished: "And everyone is saying that this is...". The silence did the rest. Cubans know perfectly well how that sentence ends.
What makes the joke particularly sharp is that it doesn't exaggerate even a bit. In 2026, Cuba is experiencing the worst energy and fuel crisis in decades. The deficit in electricity generation exceeded 1,400 MW in April, with systematic blackouts lasting over 20 consecutive hours in several provinces. The National Electric System suffered three total collapses in March, the longest lasting 29 hours and 29 minutes.
Regarding gasoline, Miguel Díaz-Canel publicly acknowledged in April that "Cuba absolutely lacks fuel for almost everything." Venezuela suspended oil supplies following Nicolás Maduro's capture in January, and Mexico also halted its exports due to pressure from Washington. The Island received a breath of fresh air at the end of March with the arrival of the Russian tanker Anatoli Kolodkin, carrying 100,000 tons of crude. Once that supply runs out, the situation has returned to extreme scarcity.
“El Cheque” has maintained a consistent activity on social media, satirizing each new episode of the Cuban debacle. In April, it had already published a video fleeing to the Moon to escape from the blackouts in Artemisa and another revealing the culprit behind the major conflicts in Cuba: the shortage of gasoline.
Mother's Day in Cuba has been celebrated on the second Sunday of May for over a century. This year, the date falls today, May 10th. If Chequera's congratulatory message—gathering thousands of views and reactions online—proved anything, it's that in this nation, mothers are not just remembered once a year: they are invoked constantly, with every blackout, with every empty ATM, with every liter of gasoline that is missing. Beyond all of this, and on a serious note, may the tribute never cease.
Filed under: