A Cuban resident in the United States announced on TikTok her decision to permanently return to Cuba with her daughter, who has American citizenship, citing three reasons that sparked extensive debate on social media.
The creator, identified as Heydita (@heydi_garcia18), published a 17-second video on May 28 where she explained her decision with arguments that combine political expectations with material and family reasons.
"Three reasons why I am definitely returning to Cuba with my American citizen daughter: number one, I know that the dictatorship in Cuba will fall; number two, I know that Cuba will be annexed to the United States; and number three, I have a house, a car, and family in Cuba," he stated in the video.
In the description of the post, the woman specified: "I'll be back in 10 days."
The case of Heydita is atypical within the viral trend of Cubans announcing their return to the island, as her arguments are predominantly political, which is unusual for this type of content, where the most common themes are economic exhaustion, loneliness, or the desire to reunite with family.
Regarding the topic of "annexation," there is no official proposal from the United States government to incorporate Cuba into its territory. What has happened is that President Donald Trump made statements in April 2026 about the possibility that the U.S. "could make a stop in Cuba," as part of an expansionist rhetoric that also included Canada and Greenland, but no formal proposal has been presented.
The woman's belief in that scenario reflects the political speculation widely circulating among Cubans on social media, fueled by statements from the Trump administration and the atmosphere of uncertainty regarding the future of the regime on the island.
The video is part of a consistent trend during 2025 and 2026 in which Cubans living abroad announce their decision to voluntarily return to Cuba. However, these returns remain statistically minor compared to massive emigration and deportations.
In 2025, at least 3,757 Cubans were deported from the U.S. and another 1,535 were repatriated on 52 flights from the United States and other countries. In February 2026, a single flight returned 170 Cubans to the island.
Other recent viral cases of Cubans returning to the island include reasons such as not wanting to pay more bills, work exhaustion, or family reunification, but none had combined the decision with arguments about the fall of the regime or a possible annexation to U.S. territory.
The fact that the daughter of the creator has U.S. citizenship added an additional dimension to the debate, with hundreds of comments questioning the implications of taking an American girl to live under the Cuban dictatorship while awaiting a political change that has no timeline or guarantees.
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