A Cuban mother living in the United States broke down in tears this Sunday as she was unable to communicate with her 11-year-old son in Cuba to wish him a happy birthday, because blackouts left the island without electricity or internet connectivity. The woman, identified on TikTok as @yuly1989_, posted a video of over three minutes where she recounts, through sobs, the helplessness of living apart from her only child.
The mother left the child in Cuba when he was seven years old, and today, on the day he turns 11, she has been unable to call him or send him a congratulatory message.
"I don't solve anything by cursing at Díaz-Canel because I can't call him. I can't send him a congratulatory message, I can't tell him that I miss him. I can't do anything because in that unfortunate country there is no electricity, there is no connection," the woman said, clearly distressed.
The most heart-wrenching moment of the video comes when he recalls his son's words: "Mom, tomorrow is my birthday, and between being poor or being rich, I prefer to be poor. But I want to have you here."
The woman confesses that she thinks about returning to Cuba, but she hesitates when wondering what she could offer the child on the island. "I feel like running away and leaving here too. But I can't do that because once I'm there, what can I provide?" she reflects.
The communication breakdown described is not an isolated case. Cuba recorded historic electrical deficits in May: on May 14, a record deficit of 2,174 MW was reached, with outages affecting 70% of the country; on May 25, the deficit exceeded 2,100 MW and Havana experienced power cuts lasting 23 hours; and on May 28, the maximum impact reached 1,957 MW with sustained interruptions of 24 hours.
Without electricity, mobile networks degrade, and access to the internet becomes nearly impossible, leaving Cubans on the island cut off from their relatives abroad for days. The regime admitted in December 2025 that blackouts would continue in 2026.
The testimony of this mother reflects the pain of millions of Cuban families divided by emigration. Between 2020 and 2024, more than 1.4 million Cubans left the island, and it is estimated that 38% of Cuban families have at least one member living abroad.
It's not the first time that this type of testimony has touched the Cuban community on social media. In September 2024, another Cuban mother in the United States broke down in tears because her son was turning 10 and she couldn't be there.
"Many will say, oh, how silly, how ridiculous. But I know that many mothers identify with me because on a birthday of the greatest treasure they have in their lives, they cannot call him, cannot congratulate him. It's hard, it's hard," said the woman before closing the video with a phrase that sums up the struggle of an entire generation: "How sad what we have to go through, my people of Cuba, how sad!"
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