A Cuban known on TikTok as Yessi la mulatica shared a testimony on Sunday that has resonated deeply within the diaspora: she arrived in the United States with promises of support from family or acquaintances, and within less than a month, she was told she had to leave, without money and without knowing where to go.
In the video published on her TikTok account, Yessi describes how before emigrating she was assured that she shouldn’t worry about anything: “When I left Cuba, I was told that this country was different, that here if you worked hard you would have everything, that I shouldn’t worry about anything, that they would help me until I could get back on my feet.”
In the first few days, as he recounts, everything seemed to confirm that promise: "Smiles, hugs, photos. I felt that I had made the best decision of my life." But living together began to wear down that initial enthusiasm.
"I started to feel like I was a burden; every favor seemed to annoy," she recounts. They were pressuring her to find a job immediately, even though she was still adjusting and had pending paperwork. Whenever she needed to go to an appointment or sort out some documentation, an excuse always came up.
The conclusion came with a phrase he never expected to hear: "You can't keep living here." He had to leave with very little money in his pocket, without a clear destination, wondering when exactly everything had changed.
"Poco a poco entendí que el sueño que me habían contado no era igual a la realidad que estaba viviendo," he reflects in the video, which accumulated more than 8,800 views, 340 likes, and 75 comments in less than 24 hours.
Yessi is not the first to document this experience. In March 2025, another Cuban warned on TikTok "don't bring anyone, look what happened to me," describing a similar pattern of unmet promises. In February 2026, a Cuban showed the state in which her house was left after hosting newcomers for two months. And just days before this video, another compatriot published that "I was deceived, I lived better in Nicaragua" upon arriving in the United States with expectations that were also not met.
Yessi's own history points to a broader concern. In June, she published another video about a friend in Cuba who asked her for $5,000 to emigrate, dispelling the notion that those living in the United States "have money to spare": "Many people in Cuba think that once you get here, dollars start falling from the sky," she said at the time.
The migration context exacerbates these tensions. The Trump administration suspended family reunification processes for legal permanent residents from Cuba in June 2025, and border crossings dropped from over 6,000 per month to just 105 in August 2025, increasing the pressure on those who are already established and must decide between helping newly arrived compatriots or protecting their own stability.
Yessi closed her video with a question that left room for debate: "Who do you think was right, the person who arrived full of hope or the family that promised help they ultimately couldn't or didn't want to provide?"
Filed under: