A Cuban resident in Miami returned to the island after nine years of absence and shared the moment on TikTok, where the video of her reunion with several family members filled with hugs and tears touched thousands of people.
@karlaaperezzz posted the clip on Thursday with the description "Back home" and a single sentence that summarizes her experience: "After 9 years, I'm back home."
The fifty-second video captures the moment when the protagonist reunites with her loved ones in Cuba, in a scene filled with emotion that is hard to remain indifferent to for anyone watching.
As background music, the author chose "Hoy" by Gloria Estefan, whose lyrics seem to have been written for the moment: "I have marked on my chest all the days that time did not allow me to be here."
The choice is not random: Estefan is one of the most recognized symbols of the Cuban diaspora, an artist who achieved success outside the island without losing her roots, and whose voice resonates particularly strongly among those living far from Cuba.
The reunion of this Cuban takes place against the backdrop of the largest migratory exodus in the contemporary history of the island. Since 2021, more than a million Cubans have left the country, driven by the economic crisis, blackouts, shortages, and the political repression of the regime.
That demographic bleed has fragmented thousands of families, separating parents from children and siblings for years, sometimes decades.
Return trips, far from being frequent, have become more difficult and expensive. According to data from the National Office of Statistics and Information of Cuba, the movements of emigrants to the island fell by 22.6% in 2025, dropping from 294,816 to 228,091, and in the first two months of 2026, the decline was even more pronounced: a 41.2% year-on-year decrease.
In that context, each return becomes an event. TikTok has transformed into the platform where the Cuban diaspora documents and shares these moments, solidifying in 2025 and 2026 a viral trend of significant emotional impact.
The cases are numerous and varied: returns after three years of absence, reunions with children after four years, family surprises after seven years away, and even the case of Pedro Solano, who returned to Cuba in June 2026 after twenty years of separation.
The video from @karlaaperezzz has, for now, accumulated over 6,200 views and nearly 420 reactions, numbers that will continue to grow as the story circulates within the Cuban community both on and off the island.
The lyrics of Gloria Estefan, playing in the background as the family embraces, conclude the clip with an image that many Cubans in the diaspora feel resonates deeply with them: "I have the sea on the other side, you are my north and my south."
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