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President Miguel Díaz-Canel appeared on Cuban television on Friday to discuss economic reforms and ended up being the focus of something quite different: a flood of memes that overwhelmed social media within hours, all targeting the same subject: his long, white, and entirely unruly hair.
The appearance occurred on the national television program Revista Buenos Días, where the leader—dressed in a short-sleeved blue and white checked shirt, with a lapel microphone and a backdrop of tropical greenery—gestured with both hands, his gaze lost in the distance as he explained his long-overdue plans to save the Cuban economy. What no one expected was that the true star of the day would be his hair.
The images from the television program on Friday, June 12 went viral instantly. Cubans both inside and outside the island wasted no time getting creative: collages, fake advertisements, comparisons with animated characters, and puns proliferated at a speed that no blackout could halt.
One of the most celebrated memes was a fake advertisement for Pantene Pro-V titled "Creative Hair Resilience," which masterfully blended serious political phrases and headlines from the regime's propaganda with the shampoo's slogan: "Fights damage from the first use." The irony was so sharp it was almost cutting.
Another meme played with the phrase "Look, I'm prickly," alluding to that poor woman who still got excited by the speeches of the Cuban political power, accompanied by a photo of someone with hair literally standing on end, directly referencing the appearance of the ruler. A third collage compared Díaz-Canel to a yellow animated character with ruffled feathers—a grumpy chick—and the "man in yellow" from the television series From. According to internet users, the resemblance was undeniable.
The comments on Facebook were equally sharp. "Even Sedal wouldn't dare to go this far," wrote one user. "She washed her hair with caustic soda," speculated another, bringing all the logic in the world to the table, considering that the shampoo has been absent from Cuban stores for months. "She hasn't received the shampoo yet," concluded a third. Someone suggested that "she needs a bit of everything," referencing the trending repair theme. Another user took a more philosophical approach: "Karma exists." And one more, with surgical precision: "The only talent she has is for being a comedian."
The greatest irony is that Díaz-Canel arrived at that interview to announce a late and insufficient package of economic reforms that includes municipal and business autonomy, opening up to foreign investment and that of the diaspora, and unblocking MIPYMES—measures inspired, as he himself stated, by the models of China and Vietnam, and evaluated with the help of artificial intelligence. "In every detail of the lives of Cubans, in every family detail, in every aspect of our economy, there are extremely complex situations," the leader acknowledged, without anyone being able to dispute that.
The context in which the appearance occurred is far from comedic: Cuba has reported in May and June electricity deficits exceeding 2,000 MW, which has left more than 65% of the country without electricity simultaneously. Díaz-Canel himself acknowledged that in the past five months, only one oil tanker had arrived on the island. More than 2.7 million Cubans were suffering from a shortage of drinking water by the end of May, directly linked to the electricity crisis.
It's not the first time that Díaz-Canel has become raw material for Cuban humor. In 2020, the handmade graphics he used on television generated the popular hashtag #CaneloArtAttack. In 2022, a photo by the sea and his pronunciation of English fueled waves of mockery. In March of this year, his visible physical decline had already sparked another round of ironic analysis. The Cuban people, who lack electricity, water, and shampoo, but do possess humor and are tired of plans, measures, and countermeasures that fundamentally aim to change nothing, unleash their jests every time the leader appears on screen. "The hour of memes has come," summed up an internet user with the precision of a skilled chronicler.
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