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A Cuban identified as Yoan C. Reyes Villar posted a personal reflection on Facebook this Saturday about emigration and family separation that has resonated with his contacts due to its emotional weight and literary precision.
In the text, accompanied by a photograph of him seen from behind looking at the sea, the author describes emigration as a phenomenon that "turns those of us who are far away into shadows that hold homes from afar, and family members into survivors of absent love."
"It is sold to us as progress what is often nothing more than a fractured life. Borders are crossed in search of a better tomorrow, while the present bleeds out in the distance," wrote Reyes Villar in his publication on Cuban emigration and family separation.
The author remains in Cuba and awaits a reunion with a woman he describes as someone to whom "I owe half of my story," in a reference that points to his mother who emigrated.
"I am still here. With my gaze fixed on that horizon of water, ninety miles. So close and yet so far. Waiting once more for that meeting, dreaming of the day when I can embrace that woman," he wrote.
The ninety miles that separate Cuba from Key West, Florida, are the central geographical and emotional symbol of the text: a physical closeness that contrasts with an emotional distance that can last for years.
The publication by Reyes Villar represents a rarely heard voice in the Cuban migration debate: that of those who stay, who do not emigrate but also do not escape the impact of the exodus.
This exodus has reached historical proportions. Between 2021 and 2024, approximately 1.79 million Cubans left the island, and in just 2024, more than 250,000 people emigrated, leaving behind children, parents, and spouses.
The population drain has reduced Cuba's effective population from 11.3 million to between 8.6 and 8.8 million inhabitants by 2025, an unprecedented decline in the island's recent history.
The factors driving this exodus are structural: severe economic crisis, chronic power outages lasting up to twenty hours a day, critical shortages of food and medications, and sustained political repression since the protests on July 11, 2021.
Those who remain in Cuba greatly depend on the remittances sent by their emigrated relatives. "Anyone who doesn't receive remittances cannot buy," summarizes a testimony collected in 2023. A private residence for the elderly in El Vedado cost 1,080 dollars per month in May 2026, a price only affordable for those receiving money from abroad.
Family separations typically last between two and four years, although many reunions after years of distance occur after five, six, or even seven years. The psychological impact is profound: studies on Cuban families with migratory links document migratory grief, anxiety, depression, and the so-called "Ulysses syndrome." Children separated from their emigrant parents report fear of abandonment and attachment issues.
The heartbreaking messages between mothers and children separated by emigration have multiplied on social media in recent months, turning these platforms into the primary emotional bridge between those who have left and those who are waiting.
Reyes Villar concluded his publication with a phrase that encapsulates the hope that sustains thousands of Cubans in the same situation: "I don't want reproaches, just time. Time to discover who we are after so much waiting. Because, although life sometimes takes a father away from you, it also gives you reasons not to give up. And this is one of them."
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