A Cuban resident in Brandon, Florida, a suburb east of Tampa, posted a video on TikTok this past Saturday in which she openly criticizes the urban aesthetics of the area where she lives, sparking widespread debate among the Cuban community in exile.
Under the account @alietty_livestyle, the content creator begins the video with a direct statement: “What an ugly city this is. I am living in Brandon, which is near Tampa. Well, it’s not Tampa, but Tampa is close, even uglier.”
The author explains that she moved from Miami to Brandon for economic reasons: the rent was more affordable and it allowed her to transition from an apartment to a house without, in her words, "losing a lung, like in Miami."
However, he acknowledges that the move came at an aesthetic cost. "I made the serious mistake of coming here, to a quieter city where rents were more affordable. But it's ugly," he admits.
His criticism does not stop at Brandon. He extends his judgment to Tampa as a whole, unfavorably comparing its downtown to that of Miami: "Tampa's Tampa consists of three buildings compared to Miami's Tampa, that's nothing."
And it goes even further: "Even Miami is ugly. Don't talk to me about Brickell, don't talk to me about the nice neighborhoods of Miami Beach. The rest is ugly."
For the Cuban, cities like New York, Boston, or Chicago do deserve aesthetic recognition, but she warns that they represent only "10% of the urbanization of this country." In her view, the rest is a vast territory lacking visual appeal.
The only exception they make is for the beaches: "Fine, white sand, the beaches, the natural," although they conclude that "what is made for man" is ugly.
Anticipating the criticisms from those who often respond with the argument that if they don’t like it, they should leave, the author employs a highly recognizable rhetorical device among Cuban exiles: "The airports are open. Yes, I will leave whenever I want, whether I want to leave or for whatever reason, but we must acknowledge that it is ugly."
This trend of openly expressing everyday frustrations, without any regret about having emigrated, is common in the Cuban community on TikTok. The internal migration of Cubans from Miami to more affordable cities like Tampa, Cape Coral, or destinations outside of Florida has been a documented trend in recent years, primarily driven by the high cost of rents in South Florida.
Another Cuban shared her experience of moving from Miami to Tampa, offering advice on renting and budgeting, while a third one recounted the reverse journey: leaving Tampa to return to Miami and facing "extremely high" rents that are impossible to afford alone.
Brandon is a residential suburb developed mainly after 1970, characterized by strip malls, generic single-family housing, and limited pedestrian activity. Tampa, on the other hand, outperformed Miami as the best city in Florida in 2021 according to the consulting firm Resonance, highlighting its low crime rate and the development of the Riverwalk, although the video’s author does not seem to have found these attributes in her daily experience.
In the video description, the Cuban succinctly summarizes the tension she experiences: "Sometimes I feel like I'm living on autopilot here. Yes, there are opportunities... but there are also places that don't convey anything to me. And although many people love this life, for me... it feels gray."
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