A Cuban woman living abroad received, through her husband and baby, a very special package that her parents prepared from Cuba: roasted pork and oxtail, two of the most iconic dishes of the island's cuisine.
The young woman, identified as Perla on TikTok, shared the moment in a video that went viral on the platform on July 2nd. In it, she is seen unpacking the food with visible excitement, tasting it, and savoring every bite.
"Look at what my parents sent me from Cuba. My husband and baby went, and they sent me all of this so I could enjoy it too and not feel sad," Perla said as she opened the package.
The gesture of his parents reverses the flow that usually characterizes the Cuban diaspora: it is typically the emigrants who send food, medicines, and basic necessities to their families on the island, not the other way around.
That parents in Cuba have prepared and sent food made for their daughter abroad carries immense symbolic weight, especially in the current context of the island, where 33.9% of Cuban households reported having experienced hunger recently, according to the report "There is Hunger in Cuba 2025."
The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights reports that 89% of Cuban families live in extreme poverty, and that seven out of ten Cubans have stopped having breakfast, lunch, or dinner due to a lack of money or food.
In that context, the fact that Perla's parents chose precisely roasted pig and roasted tail —not just any dish, but the most representative of the Cuban table— transforms the gesture into a message rich with love, identity, and nostalgia.
The roast pig is the most iconic dish of Cuban culture, associated with family celebrations, Christmas Eve, and New Year's. Its traditional preparation takes at least eight hours, and its presence on the table symbolizes festivity and family togetherness.
Roast tail, for its part, is another dish with deep roots in Cuban cuisine, although its preparation has become increasingly rare on the island due to chronic shortages of ingredients.
For Cubans in the diaspora, maintaining these traditions —whether by cooking them abroad or receiving them from the island— is one of the most powerful ways to preserve their identity and connection to their roots. Cuban migrants support their families by sending from abroad what is scarce in Cuba: medicine, food, and basic necessities.
The video of Perla, published with the hashtags #cuba #nostalgia #cubanos #cerdoasado, garnered over 2,200 views and dozens of reactions from other Cubans who identified with the scene.
A package of carne asada that crossed the ocean encapsulates, better than any words, what it means to long for someone from afar when familial separation is the everyday reality for thousands of Cubans.
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