A Cuban living abroad showcased in a video posted on TikTok everything she purchased to send a package to her family on the island, with a bill of 308 dollars that does not even include a piece of meat or the cost of shipping.
The content creator @bysayma published a video last Friday that lasts two minutes and 47 seconds, in which she goes through one by one the products she purchased for her family in Cuba: red and black beans, five packages of peas, coffee mate, tamale in a pot with pork and sofrito, deodorant, soap, Goya seasoning, cinnamon sticks, minced garlic in olive oil, onion powder, cumin, cilantro, rosemary, shower gel, toothpaste, chocolate for milk, raisins, and four packages of coffee.
"Gentlemen, Cuba has left me dry," begins the Cuban woman before detailing each purchase with the ease of someone who has been repeating the same ritual for years.
One of the moments that stands out the most is when she shows the coffee. "Wow, coffee is so expensive, I can't believe it, five dollars for each little package of coffee," she says, clearly surprised by the price.
It also explains why he bought minced garlic in olive oil: "In Cuba, there is no garlic," he justifies, summarizing in four words the extent of the shortages the island is experiencing.
The selection of products is not random. She bought black beans only in small quantities because it is the one that is "easiest for them to find there," prioritizing the red beans. She chose the tamal in a pot because "it already comes with pork and even includes the sofrito, so this just needs to be heated up and it's ready."
In the end, the numbers speak for themselves: "Three hundred eight dollars for what I bought my love. There's not even a piece of meat here."
And what comes next isn't free either. "Tell me something, but no, that's what it currently costs me to send all of this to Cuba," he adds, recalling that the shipping expenses are still ahead. Courier agencies charge starting from 45 dollars for 11 pounds in sea shipping, with delivery times ranging from 30 to 40 days, and Cuban tariffs can exceed 100% of the declared value of the package.
The video by @bysayma joins a well-established trend among Cubans in the diaspora who document their purchases to send to Cuba, generating significant engagement as it portrays the dual economic burden they face: funding their own lives abroad while supporting their families on the island.
This burden is not a whim, but an urgent necessity. According to the Food Monitor Program, five Cuban provinces are facing critical levels of food survival in 2026: Havana, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Guantánamo, and Santiago de Cuba.
96.91% of the Cuban population lacks adequate access to food, 33.9% of households experienced hunger in 2025, and 80% of Cubans believe that the current crisis is worse than the Special Period of the 1990s.
The video closes with a phrase that encapsulates the exhaustion of thousands of families in the diaspora: "Cuba. You are destroying me."
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