A Cuban resident in the United States recorded a video from the cemetery in Cuba where his brother is buried and shared it on his social media with a message that hits hard for its starkness: the dead end up abandoned, and no one will do for you what you don’t do for your own.
The author, known on TikTok as Pita el Polemico, published a recording on Wednesday from the family grave, where his brother —who passed away in 2005—, his mother, and other relatives are laid to rest. The video garnered nearly 10,000 views in just a few days.
Upon arriving at the cemetery after two years away, the man found a stone from the tombstone lying on the ground, buried under the grass. For him, that image said it all.
"This stone that you see here, I just picked it up from the ground, as it seems to be buried under the grass. I've been away from the United States for two years, and during the last two years that I was here, the stone was up there," he explained in front of the camera.
The conclusion she reached was straightforward: "This means that this stone was thrown here two years ago, and no one has come here since then."
From that observation, Pita offered a thought that resonated with her followers: "If you come to realize this, do not stop doing anything you need to do for anyone, because no one is going to stop doing what they have to do for you."
The message left no room for ambiguity: "Here you realize that everyone abandons you and that after you leave, well, it will just be you."
Despite the distance and the time that has passed, the man emphasized that he does keep his promises to his brother: "It's been two years since I last came, and here I am fulfilling my obligation to him, just as I always have until now."
The case of Pita is not isolated. The massive emigration of Cubans has left thousands of graves unattended throughout the island. Reports of crumbling cemeteries, desecrated vaults, and missing remains have surged on social media from provinces such as Camagüey, Guantánamo, Holguín, and Santa Clara. In December 2025, the family of artist Camila Lobón reported finding their family crypt empty in the General Cemetery of Camagüey, with open graves and missing remains.
In April 2026, graves converted into rubble with exposed human remains were documented in another Cuban cemetery, and in May, the disappearance of remains in a cemetery on the island was reported. This same month of June, a Cuban publicly lamented the state of her family’s final resting place.
The Cuban regime itself acknowledged in 2018 that the more than 800 cemeteries in the country were overwhelmed, a situation that has only worsened due to the sustained exodus in recent years.
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