Alfredo Castellanos JR, the Cuban known on social media for his striking physical resemblance to Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny, published an emotional video on TikTok last Friday that showcases his reunion with his parents in Brazil, accompanied by the simple yet meaningful caption: "We did it, my people."
The video, one minute and forty seconds long, was tagged with the hashtags #cubanosporelmundo, #cubanosenbrasil, and #familia, and it garnered over 50,400 views and nearly 7,000 likes within a few hours.
Castellanos JR has been living in Brazil for a long time and has built a community of followers who closely follow his life as a Cuban migrant in that country.
His popularity stemmed from his extraordinary physical resemblance to Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, the real name of the Puerto Rican artist, including tattoos in similar positions to those of the musician. By May 2024, he had already accumulated over 70,000 followers on Instagram and was recognized as one of the Cubans who drew the most attention on social media due to his resemblance to a celebrity.
In January 2025, it became a trend again with a Cuban parody of the song "DtMF" by Bad Bunny, adapting the lyrics to the migratory reality of the Island with the phrase "I should have taken a boat the times I could," which immediately resonated with thousands of Cubans abroad.
In October 2025, Castellanos JR starred in another viral moment by revealing that he had obtained his first own home in Brazil. He did this with his usual blend of humor and emotion: he started the video pretending that he was returning to Cuba — "It hurts to say it, but I couldn't handle the pressure of living in Brazil and I'm going back to Cuba" — before delivering a comedic twist: "Where to go back to, man? I already have rent!"
The reunion with their parents adds to a recurring phenomenon within the Cuban community in Brazil, where family separations lasting years—sometimes decades—end in hugs that go viral on social media.
Similar cases have been documented recently: a Cuban woman welcomed her parents in Brazil on April 29 with the message "Finally, Mom and Dad, we're in Brazil. We made it. The family is complete"; another young woman waited six years to hug her father in July 2025; and in November of the same year, a Cuban woman was reunited with her mother and brother after 45 years of separation due to the Mariel exodus.
This context reflects the magnitude of Cuban migration to Brazil: by April 2026, Cubans had surpassed Venezuelans for the first time in a decade in asylum applications in that country, according to data available during that period.
Filed under: