A Cuban doctor who has emigrated, known on TikTok as @dr.aloma, posted a video yesterday in which she humorously and candidly responds to those who say she was able to study medicine "thanks to the revolution," dismantling that argument with her own story and that of thousands of Cuban professionals who obtained a degree they were never able to practice.
In the 1 minute and 53 seconds clip, the creator describes the gap between the education received in Cuba and the reality faced by its graduates: "you give six years of your life, love, and then the doctor has to work in a small business," she says, adding that the industrial engineer "has to work in the mosquito brigade" and the architect "with the island falling apart has no materials to make plans, not even a pencil to build."
The author recounts her personal story in detail: she comes from a family of doctors, dreamed of being a plastic surgeon since she was young, memorized bones and systems of the human body, and ultimately earned her white coat after battling "the trompones" with a "veinte pesero" at a bus stop to get to university.
However, the reality within the Cuban healthcare system shattered those dreams: "with that same white coat, looking a patient in the eyes and saying 'I prescribe you a basil infusion'."
That humiliation led her to a direct conclusion: "Just wait, to be a burundanguero and give out green medicine, I shouldn't have had to study so much."
After emigrating, she decided to start from scratch: to attend college, obtain a university degree, and then pursue a master's degree in order to work as a respected professional in her host country, to which she says, "we owe everything, primarily our freedom."
The video concludes with a phrase that summarizes the central argument: "I believe we owe nothing because in Cuba, degrees are earned just to be displayed in a glass case (...) covered in dust and flies, with broken dreams that you will never be able to pursue."
The testimony from @dr.aloma adds to a long list of Cuban doctors who have to start from scratch upon emigrating, facing costly and lengthy revalidation processes: in the United States, the procedure can cost between 30,000 and 60,000 dollars and involves passing the medical licensing exam and completing a residency; in Spain, the process can take years due to bureaucratic hurdles, including the difficulty of obtaining the "no disqualification" certificate that the Cuban regime does not issue easily.
While they wait for their degrees to be validated, many of these professionals work in jobs unrelated to their field, such as cleaning, warehousing, or retail.
The official Cuban discourse has historically used free education —especially medical training— as a legitimizing argument for the dictatorship, which graduated over 26,649 health professionals in 2008 and more than 10,500 doctors in 2013.
A Cuban doctor in Spain celebrated being able to practice again after years of waiting, in a testimony that illustrates that revalidation, although possible, requires a disproportionate effort that the regime never mentions when boasting about its graduates.
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