A Cuban who posts on Instagram under the name LaSai DeLa Vida recorded a video after 20 hours without electricity in Havana and posed a series of rhetorical questions that summarize daily life under the dictatorship: Is it normal to live swatting flies, go to bed sweating without water, or shout at a child asking for food?
The video begins the moment the power comes back on. "The electricity has just been restored after 20 hours in Apau, in Havana; in the province, I don't know if you remember what electricity is," the author says with a mix of irony and fatigue.
From that starting point, LaSai DeLa Vida presents a recounting of the conditions that millions of Cubans have ultimately accepted as part of their routine.
"And do you think it's normal to live by swatting away flies that come from the garbage dump across the street?" she asks. "And do you think it's normal to go to bed and get up every day sweating and unable to shower because you don't even have water?"
The complaint reaches its most political point when it highlights the inequality between the people and those who govern them: "And do you really think it's normal for your bones to protrude while the leaders have full bellies?"
It also points to the dependence on remittances and shipments from abroad as the only lifeline for many families. "Have you accepted that your new clothes are the ones your cousins from abroad used and leave for you when they visit? And do you think it's normal for a combo meal to be the salvation of a family that can't support itself?" she asks.
One of the most poignant moments in the video is when it describes the despair of parents facing their children's hunger: "And do you think it's normal to yell at your child when they tell you they are hungry because it's normal for there not to be enough bread?"
In the end, the author addresses political repression with the same naturalness with which she describes scarcity. "You think you're a worm because you speak the truth, because you think differently," she states. She adds, "There are also those who prefer to remain silent because we have normalized the idea that speaking freely can mean disappearing."
The video is produced at the worst moment of the electrical crisis in Cuba during 2026, when blackouts exceed 20 to 22 hours daily, leaving the population with only one and a half to four hours of electricity each day.
The energy crisis overlaps with a documented food emergency. The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights reported that 89% of Cubans live in extreme poverty and that seven out of ten have stopped having breakfast, lunch, or dinner due to lack of money or food.
The video from LaSai DeLa Vida is not an isolated case. Last May, another Cuban mother published a viral video in which she stated: "Hunger is killing us, misery is killing us." Additionally, the Cuban Rosy Wanderlust garnered over 45,000 likes with a testimony in which she claimed that in Cuba, they do not have the right to be happy.
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