A Cuban who has been away from the island for over a decade and a half starred in one of the most emotional reunions that has circulated on social media in recent weeks. In a video published on TikTok on July 12, the user @nanyy2387 captured the moment she embraced her father in Cuba after 17 years of separation and 12 years without stepping foot on the island.
The clip, just 28 seconds long, captures the moment when the woman steps out of a car and runs toward her father, her voice trembling. The scene, brief yet filled with emotion, encapsulates years of forced separation that Cuban emigration has imposed on thousands of families.
"12 years without going to Cuba and 17 years without being able to see my dad," the author wrote in the video description, summarizing in a few words the weight of a separation that spans nearly two decades.
They melted into an embrace that quickly moved those who witnessed it. The reaction on social media was immediate: the video reached over 3,200 views, 251 likes, 42 comments, and was shared seven times in a short period.
The case of @nanyy2387 is not isolated. Since 2025, TikTok has become the main showcase for these reunions between emigrated Cubans and their families on the island, with separations lasting from three to 20 years. Among the most notable this year is the story of Pedro Solano, who embraced his mother after two decades, and that of Yali, whose return to Cuba after four years garnered nearly 710,000 views.
On July 6, another Cuban was reunited with his son on the island after four years of absence, in a video that surpassed 24,000 views. And just days before the clip of @nanyy2387 was published, a Cuban family experienced another heart-wrenching reunion that also circulated widely on social media.
Behind each of these videos lies a common cause: the massive exodus that has emptied Cuba of millions of people. In 2025 alone, 245,264 Cubans left the island, according to data from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) cited by international media, leaving the total population at 9,434,593 residents. Between 2021 and 2024, approximately 1.79 million Cubans had already left the island.
This diaspora has fragmented families for years or even decades, turning reunions —when they finally occur— into moments of emotional weight that resonate deeply within the Cuban community both on the island and abroad.
The case of 17 years of @nanyy2387 is one of the longest recorded in this trend, and her video adds to a gallery of stories that reflect the human cost of decades of economic and political crises in Cuba.
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