The Cuban Mayre Perez recorded herself while having breakfast before heading to work and published a reel on Facebook in which she reflects on one of the most recurring debates among Cuban emigrants: the advice to "forget about Cuba" that many receive upon arriving in the United States.
In the video, Mayre describes that upon arriving in the country, there is always someone who repeats the same formula to her: "Forget about Cuba, forget about Cuba. You have to be well first so that those back there can be well." That "aside," she says, is what she still hasn’t been able to understand.
His argument is straightforward and to the point: he knows people who have been in the United States for eight or ten years and still aren't doing well, so their family in Cuba cannot wait that long to eat.
"If I know people who have been here for 8 and 10 years and are still not doing well, can you imagine my family in Cuba waiting all that time to be able to eat while I get settled? They would starve to death," he says in the video.
Mayre describes her personal situation with an honesty that touched thousands of viewers: "Here I am, look, I don't even have a frame. I have nothing. A sofa and a television. But my family eats in Cuba."
For her, the concept of "being well" is relative and has nothing to do with material luxuries: "Maybe for you being well means having three gold chains, a Lamborghini parked outside, a jacuzzi. I don’t know. For me, being well means that my loved ones back home are okay. If they are well, I’m calm here and I’m good."
The video concludes with an open question: "What do you think?", and it has garnered over 45,700 views, 1,524 likes, and 457 comments.
The dilemma posed by Mayre is not philosophical: it is a matter of real survival. According to the survey "There is Hunger in Cuba 2025" from the Food Monitor Program, 33.9% of Cuban households experienced hunger in 2025, an increase of 9.3 percentage points compared to the previous year.
25% of Cubans go to bed without dinner, 29% of families have eliminated one daily meal, and 79.4% of households allocate more than 80% of their income to food.
National production has collapsed: pork dropped by 93.2%, rice by 59%, eggs by 43%, and milk by 37.6%.
This context turns the debate about remittances into something urgent. On one hand, there are those who argue that sending money to Cuba supports the regime by alleviating its social responsibility. On the other hand, most emigrants, like Mayre, prioritize the immediate well-being of their family members over any political considerations.
That second group emphasizes that they cannot afford to wait years to "be well" before helping, when in Cuba the difference between receiving a remittance or not can literally mean the difference between eating or not eating.
Remittances represent a transfer of pain stemming from sacrifice and uprooting, not a luxury, and any discussion on the matter occurs among victims without holding the system that created the crisis accountable, according to analyses published on the topic.
Historically, remittances to Cuba have exceeded 3.5 billion dollars annually and benefit 60% of families on the island, figures that illustrate how much the daily survival of many Cubans relies on what their relatives abroad, like Mayre, choose to prioritize before buying a picture for the wall.
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