A Cuban resident in Spain sent a direct message to her family on the island through TikTok, asking them to recognize the sacrifice involved in sending anything from abroad, "even if it's a piece of gum, a candy, or a lollipop."
The user @aldanelys.avila.m recorded the video with an emotional tone and straightforwardness, addressing directly those who remain in Cuba to help them understand the economic reality faced by emigrants in Spain.
"Gentlemen, there are people here in Spain earning the minimum wage who can't make ends meet. They have to work hard, extra hours, illegally, just to get by and make it to the end of the month," the woman stated in the recording.
The call did not stop at mere complaints: the Cuban concluded her message with a sincere plea. "Value, value the effort that each person makes to send something to their family. I'm telling you, I'm telling you the truth," she expressed.
The minimum wage in Spain for 2026 is 1,221 euros per month gross, and according to testimonies from Cubans living in that country, a family of four with an income of 2,000 euros per month spends around 1,600 euros on fixed expenses —rent, food, insurance, taxes— leaving just 400 euros for unforeseen expenses or to help their families in Cuba.
Many Cuban emigrants work in precarious sectors such as hotel cleaning, elderly care, or hospitality, and yet they still allocate a portion of that limited income to send money or goods back to the island.
The gap between both realities is abysmal. The new minimum wage in Cuba, effective from July 1, has been set at 3,210 Cuban pesos, which is 53% more than the previous wage, but amounts to just about 4.65 dollars at the unofficial exchange rate.
To grasp the absurdity of this figure, a dozen eggs in Cuba costs between 3,000 and 4,000 pesos, which can alone exceed the entire minimum monthly wage. Economist Javier Pérez Capdevila estimated that a person needs 96,060 pesos a month to cover their basic expenses, of which 70,070 is dedicated solely to food.
In that context of critical dependence, remittances and packages sent from abroad have become a lifeline for thousands of Cuban families, but they have also created a constant source of tension between those who send and those who receive.
The video from @aldanelys.avila.m joins a trend that has been repeated for months on TikTok. In June, another Cuban in Spain reported having sent 4,000 euros in six months to her family on the island and receiving hostile treatment in return. In May, the creator @arguellespositivo also urged Cubans on the island to appreciate remittances of 10, 15, or 20 dollars, with a phrase that went viral: "Money doesn't grow on trees."
Cuban residents in the United States have added their voices to the debate with messages rejecting family pressure, using phrases such as "I'm not an ATM". Meanwhile, on the island, audios have also circulated reflecting the desperation from the other side: "Can you at least send me a scooter for the child?" a woman asked a friend abroad in a viral audio from January.
Before the recent restrictions, remittance flows from the Cuban diaspora exceeded 2 billion dollars annually, although only 24% of the population on the island received these transfers. This illustrates that the dependency is substantial but not universal, and that the burden on emigrants is disproportionate to what many of them can actually afford.
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