The content creator Jonathan Montelongo published a reel on Facebook that went viral with over 113,000 views, 8,227 likes, and 847 comments: a decalogue of Cuban identity that elicited laughter and tears in equal measure from Cubans around the world.
It all began when a Spanish friend asked him what it meant to be Cuban. The response turned into a two-minute and 25-second snapshot that no national identity manual could surpass.
The list starts with the essentials: keep the loud beans just in case something comes up, offer coffee to the pest control worker because "even if you don't know him, he's fighting just like you," and have a new pair of bloomers reserved in case someone ends up in the hospital. Three items that alone summarize decades of scarcity and neighborhood solidarity.
Then come the New Year's rituals: the bucket of water that is thrown into the street at midnight to drive away the bad, the egg that is rolled, and the suitcase that must be carried around the block on December 31 to attract travel and opportunities. Traditions that millions of Cubans continue to practice both on and off the island, as confirmed by images of Cuban women walking around with suitcases that circulate every New Year on social media.
Montelongo also reserves one of his sharpest definitions for baseball: "Baseball is a sport where you have fun with a team, and batting is an audacity where a team has fun with you." This distinction, in the context of current Cuban sports, has more layers than it appears.
The video also captures the generational experience of the "school to the field" program, which since the 1970s sent students to work on farms for 45 days, where one could exchange "a can of cuquita [sweetened condensed milk] for a bowl of fritters." Those who haven't lived that simply don't have the stamp.
The closing of the video was what truly broke the audience. "To be Cuban, you have to dream big even if you wake up with little," says Montelongo, before concluding: "What makes you Cuban is that while I was telling you all this, thousands of Cubans smiled around the world. Because for a moment they returned to their grandmother's house, to the neighborhood where they grew up, to the sound of a drum, to a table where nothing was ever leftover."
The comments section was filled with confessions that blended laughter with a lump in the throat. "You made me cry and laugh at the same time because I will never stop being Cuban," wrote one follower. Another, from the island itself, noted: "I'm still in Cuba and I smiled (my eyes also 'filled up' with tears)." There was even someone who requested a sequel with more proverbs from the national repertoire.
The video directly connects with the reality of a diaspora that, since 2020, is estimated to have exceeded the figure of 1.7 million Cubans who have emigrated, scattered from Miami to Sweden. Montelongo, born in Pinar del Río, is one of them: he left Cuba at the end of 2023 due to fear, insecurity, and lack of future, and arrived in Miami in March 2024 after crossing several borders and waiting in line on the CBP One app.
From Miami, he has built a community of over 262,000 followers. His conclusion about Cuban identity leaves no room for doubt: "Being Cuban is not a nationality. Being Cuban is something else. It's a multitude of memories that one carries for a lifetime, and there are borders that may separate you from your homeland, but never from the Cuba you learned to carry within."
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