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The arrival of a septic tank cleaning truck owned by a Cuban in Hialeah has become a viral phenomenon.
The reason: its owner decided to print the faces of Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro, and Miguel Díaz-Canel on the tank, accompanied by the message "ONLY SH*T GETS LOADED".
The author of such an ingenious idea is Roberto Hernández, owner of RHL Group Construction Corp., a company based in Lehigh Acres, Lee County, that specializes in property repairs, pool installations, and septic system cleaning.
The idea for the controversial design was born almost by accident during the meeting where the vehicle's logo was being decided: it was a friend who suggested placing images of the three leaders of the Cuban dictatorship, and the proposal immediately resonated.
"That started as a joke on the day the truck was designed. I decided to just put 'only loads... well, what it says there, crap,'" Hernández explained to journalist Yusnaby Pérez from Telemundo 51.
According to what he said, the vehicle has made quite an impression on the street: "People greet me, congratulate me, support me, honk at me, get out of their cars, take pictures... It's crazy," he recounted.
For this Cuban entrepreneur based in Florida, the choice of those faces was not arbitrary: "We chose the ones that truly hurt us," he stated.
Hernández is aware that the design carries a deep emotional weight for the entire Cuban community in exile: "It was created with the pain that I, as a Cuban, have felt, and all the Cubans here in Florida, in Cuba, and around the world have in their blood."
The truck went viral for the first time last April, through a video posted on TikTok by user Elizabet Lopez, which exceeded 186,000 views.
A month later, the vehicle has started to circulate through the streets of Hialeah, the heart of the Cuban exile community in Florida, where the reaction from the community was immediate and enthusiastic.
Passersby and drivers stop, take photos, ask for permission to record videos, wave, and honk their horns in support every time the truck makes an appearance.
Hialeah has a population of approximately 225,000 residents, of which 74.2% are of Cuban origin, making the city one of the main strongholds of exile in the United States.
The visceral and direct advertising not only channeled the collective sentiment of a community marked by decades of oppression but also resulted in a resounding commercial success for the company, according to Hernández himself.
The reel published on Facebook by Yusnaby Pérez about the truck accumulated over 102,000 views, giving a new media dimension to the phenomenon.
The case of RHL Group Construction fits into a long tradition of political humor among the Cuban exile community in Florida, where satire serves as a form of cultural and identity resistance against the regime.
"That is the feeling of all Cubans, the suffering and pain of so many years of oppression, dictatorship, however it may be called," Hernández concluded.
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