A Cuban who has lived in Spain for nine years summarized in one minute what millions of emigrants feel but rarely express so clearly: she doesn't miss the dictatorship; she misses Cuba. Lesyanis Portilla, known on TikTok as "Stories of a Cuban," posted a video on Monday in which she lists the three things she does not miss about the island after nearly a decade living in the Iberian country.
The first absence that is celebrated is the most routine: “I don’t miss waking up wondering if there will be electricity, water, or something to eat.” A phrase that encapsulates the daily anguish of those who remain in Cuba, where 33.9% of households report recent hunger and blackouts can last more than 30 consecutive hours.
The second thing he does not miss is fear. In Spain, he says, you can criticize the president, the neighbor across the street, or anyone else, "because there is free expression, without any fear that at 3 in the morning someone will knock on my door and want to take me away." That threat is not rhetorical: more than 1,400 people remain imprisoned in Cuba for political reasons, according to human rights organizations.
The third element she does not miss is the endless lines. "I don't miss wasting 4 hours of my life just to buy a chicken or to see if there’s bread. You have to hurry. You have to run because if you don’t, it'll be gone in 10 minutes," she describes. She sums up the contrast with her current life in one sentence: "Here, I go to the supermarket, buy, and that's it."
This type of testimony connects with a consolidated trend among Cubans in Spain who share their contrasting experiences of life on the island and abroad on social media. By the beginning of 2026, approximately 287,490 people born in Cuba were residing in the country, with at least 35,200 new additions to the municipal registry just during 2025.
But Portilla's video is not just a list of shortcomings. There is also nostalgia, and it runs deep: "I miss the hug from my people, having coffee at the door with my neighbor, gossiping in the neighborhood, being with my people." The paradox that shapes his testimony — and resonates with much of the Cuban diaspora — is that the nostalgia does not point to the system or the material conditions, but to the human connections that were left behind.
She encapsulates that distinction herself at the end of the video with a phrase that is already circulating among her followers: "I don't miss the dictatorship. I miss Cuba."
The video, published on Monday, has garnered nearly 3,000 views and ends with a direct question to other emigrants: "And you, Cuban who is outside the Island, I know you would return if one day our dictatorship fell. Tell me, what do you not miss about Cuba?" A question that, judging by the comments, many are willing to answer.
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