The Cuban dancer and content creator Dei Flaki Flow broke down in tears while reading aloud to her followers a message that her mother had sent her that very morning from Cuba, three years after the young woman had left the island.
The video, posted on Instagram with the caption "I left Cuba three years ago," is explicitly dedicated "to all the Cuban mothers who are not with their children" and transforms an intimate moment into a collective reflection of the diaspora.
The letter, written in the first person by the mother, opens with an image that summarizes the distance: "My dear daughter, today I woke up looking at your photo, the same one I keep alongside the most valuable things in my life. I wiped it clean with the tip of my apron as if I could also erase the distance that remains."
The text describes how the home changed since the departure: "The house doesn't sound the same since you left. Your room still holds a bit of you. Sometimes I go in just to feel like you're still here."
The mother acknowledges that her daughter did not emigrate out of personal ambition, but to support the family: "You left so that there would be food on the table. And although the world sees you as an emigrant, I see you as a brave person."
One of the most emotional passages frees the daughter from the economic burden that often weighs on Cuban emigrants: "You owe me nothing, daughter. Not a dollar. Not a package. Not a recharge. Not one more sacrifice. All I wish is for you to be well, to eat on time, to rest, to not lose faith, and to never forget who you are."
Dei Flaki Flow could not finish reading without breaking down: "Oh, I'm crying. It's impossible, sir. It's impossible," he admitted to the camera.
The message concludes with a promise of waiting: "We await you with the table incomplete, with the door open, with our hearts holding your place. If one day you feel that fatigue overwhelms you, remember that in this small house in Cuba, there is a mother who prays to God for you every night. Because children emigrate. But for a mother, they never truly leave."
This type of video is part of a cultural phenomenon that has proliferated on social media amidst the largest migratory exodus in the recent history of Cuba. A Cuban mother in the United States also broke down in tears upon hearing an audio message from her daughter on the island, and another experienced a similar moment when she confessed that she would prefer to have her daughter close rather than receive any financial assistance.
The separation between mothers and young children is one of the most defining features of the current exodus: 77% of Cuban migrants are between 15 and 49 years old, according to demographic data, and it is estimated that approximately 1.79 million people left Cuba between 2022 and 2023.
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