A Cuban photographer and entrepreneur from Pinar del Río summarized in one phrase the reality faced by millions of people on the island: in Cuba, the present is safer than the future.
Mikely Arencibia Pantoja published on Facebook a reflection that is widely circulating on social media and that describes, with painful accuracy, the loss of tomorrow's horizon as a collective phenomenon.
"In Cuba, today is better than tomorrow. And yes, it may sound absurd, but we know it is a painfully real description," Arencibia wrote, subverting the logic that governs life in any functional society.
Under normal conditions, people sacrifice the present in the belief that the future will reward their efforts: they study to get a better job, work to save money, and start businesses to grow. In Cuba, Arencibia explains, that logic has completely broken down.
"If today you found food, you don't know if you'll see it again tomorrow. If there was electricity today, no one can guarantee that there will be tomorrow. If a medication appeared today, it may disappear for months. If your salary is insufficient today, tomorrow it will probably be even less," the text states.
The result, according to the author, is that planning disappears and improvisation takes its place: "The logical planning of our lives vanishes and is replaced by improvisation."
This reflection comes amid one of the worst economic and humanitarian crises Cuba has faced in decades.
Projections for 2026 indicate a decline of the Cuban GDP by between 6.5% and 7.2%, inflation is out of control, and blackouts reach up to 20 hours a day in some provinces. The UN warned in May 2026 that across the island.
Arencibia is not unfamiliar with this type of reflection. On July 3, he described the Cuban as a "professional manager of scarcity" and warned that the ability to survive should not be confused with quality of life.
On July 8, he published "Normalizing the Unusual," where he pointed out that power outages have even restructured everyday language, with expressions like "when is our blackout?"
For the author, the most visible consequence of this loss of future is mass emigration, but not for the reasons one might assume: "Perhaps that's why so many Cubans do not emigrate in search of wealth. They emigrate seeking something much simpler: the possibility of believing once again that tomorrow can be better than today."
The data supports this reading. Economist Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos estimated that between 2020 and 2024 24% of the Cuban population emigrated, and over 250,000 Cubans left the country in just 2024. A survey conducted in September 2025 revealed that 93% of participants would leave Cuba "tomorrow" if they could.
Arencibia concludes his reflection with a warning that goes beyond the individual: "A country begins to die when its citizens stop hoping for a better tomorrow. And it starts to be reborn the day they regain the hope of building it."
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