Yatmara Bernal, a Cuban mother and content creator, published a video on Facebook that shows in real-time how she cooks during a 30-hour blackout, with her phone at 15% battery and without electricity to light the recording.
The video opens with a phrase that sums it all up: "In Cuba, there are no blackouts; what we have are bright spots," a popular expression that, with humor and irony, reinterprets power outages as part of the Cuban ingenuity for coping with the crisis.
With the beans she had prepared the day before, Yatmara improvises a full menu: "We’re going to make a quick congris, without much preparation or planning," she says as she sets up the coffee maker and puts chicken to cook in a small pot.
"If God wills it and it doesn't rain, I imagine we'll be eating by 7," he comments calmly, as someone who has learned to negotiate with the uncertainty of electricity every evening.
The scene that Yatmara depicts is not exceptional: it is the daily routine of millions of Cubans in May 2026, when power outages exceed 20 hours a day in many areas of the country.
On May 14, the Electric Union reported a capacity of only 636 MW against a demand of 2,420 MW, with a projected deficit of 2,204 MW for the nighttime peak, the highest figure recorded up to that point.
The Minister of Energy publicly acknowledged that the Cuban electrical system has experienced seven total collapses in 18 months, including the national blackout on March 16, which left the entire island without electricity for 29 hours and 29 minutes.
According to the Food Monitor Program, with power cuts lasting up to 20 hours a day, over 9 million people in Cuba are facing severe difficulties or complete inability to cook in their homes.
Faced with this reality, Cuban mothers have developed survival strategies that are going viral on social media: cooking at three in the morning when the power returns, preparing meals for several days during a single window of electricity, or making the most of every minute of light to cook, wash, and charge devices simultaneously.
The video of Yatmara, recorded in just one minute and 29 seconds, reflects that everyday resilience more directly than official reports.
In December 2025, Minister Vicente de la O Levy had already warned that 2026 would be "a difficult year, slightly better than 2025, but without eliminating the impacts," a promise that the reality of May has left far below what was experienced.
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