A Cuban native from Cienfuegos recounted on TikTok the 42 days of journey she experienced to reach Miami, a trek marked by police arrests, inhumane transport conditions, and a moment when she nearly lost her life in the Rio Bravo.
Yenisleidys Solís shared her testimony in a video published on July 10 under the user @yenisleidysolis, where she detailed every stage of a journey that left her weighing just 90 pounds upon reaching her destination.
It all started when he sold his apartment in Cienfuegos to fund the trip. "When Nicaragua opened up, I had an apartment in Cienfuegos, I live in Cienfuegos, and I sold the apartment, bought a ticket to Nicaragua, and set off for here," he explained.
On her first attempt to cross from Nicaragua to Honduras on horseback, the Honduran police detained her along with another woman for 24 hours and deported her back. Far from giving up, she joined a second group and repeated the entire journey. "I didn't back down, and I said I am not going to look back," she asserted.
After crossing Honduras by bus for about 13 hours to Guatemala, and then to Chiapas, Mexico, the difficulties multiplied. She was left without internet or communication for a week alongside between 100 and 200 migrants. "They left us stranded for about a week in a place with no communication, and I decided to escape," she recounted.
In Mexico, the police pursued her as she attempted to escape in a taxi. She hid in the underbrush, traveled concealed in the floor of a private car, and faced a risky situation when the driver of a van started to venture down dark paths in the mountains. "If you're going to take me to a place where there are men to do something bad to us, you won't make it out alive," she warned the driver, holding a fork in her hand.
The transportation conditions were extreme. First, he traveled in a closed trailer alongside about 500 people for 12 hours. Then, in a sealed container for 24 hours with just one bucket as a sanitary service for all the passengers. "There were about five hundred of us in that trailer, and the women got dirty, the men did too, I can't explain it to you," he recounted.
The most critical moment came at the Río Bravo. She was trying to cross while holding onto a rope with about 70 other people when a heavy man in front of her fell into the water due to the current. "When he fell, he pulled me under, and as I was sinking, the rope got tangled around my neck; I was being choked underwater," she described. Two men rescued her, removed her backpack, and revived her on the shore.
After surrendering to U.S. authorities, she was detained for only 24 hours before being released to go to Miami. She arrived with a sprained foot and visibly malnourished. "I spent forty-two days; I arrived weighing ninety pounds, and the auras were following me like that, hovering over me, ready to consume me at any moment because I was so weak. I thought I wouldn't make it, but I did. You tell the story, but it was tough, really tough," she concluded her account.
The testimony of Yenisleidys illustrates the Central American route used by thousands of Cubans after the elimination of the visa requirement in Nicaragua in November 2021, a path that was essentially closed off in February 2026 when Managua reinstated that requirement, which reduced migration flows from Cuba through Honduras by more than 70%.
Other Cuban women have shared similar accounts of migratory odysseys through multiple countries, as documented in a recent journey across 13 nations, highlighting that the mass exodus driven by the economic crisis, blackouts, and shortages on the island continues to leave stories of extreme survival.
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