A Cuban boy became the voice of millions this week as he captured the reality of his country in a single sentence: standing in front of a coffee maker blackened by coal soot, he looked into the camera and said without hesitation, "It's sooty because that's what communism does. Because communism leads to this."
The moment was captured in a video posted on Facebook by his father, Eyder Tamayo, which garnered thousands of views in just a few hours.
The clip, just over two minutes long, shows the child's father cooking a chicken in a pot darkened from the use of charcoal or firewood, while the little boy narrates the scene with a naturalness that is more eloquent than any political analysis.
The tarnished coffee maker that appears in the video encapsulates, in a single household item, six decades of unfulfilled promises.
"This is how the situation in Cuba has us," the boy asserts.
The image is neither casual nor exceptional: it is the norm for millions of Cubans.
According to data from the Food Monitor Program for June, 80.4% of Cuban households experienced a reduction in their cooking capabilities due to power outages, and 41% had to resort to firewood, charcoal, or kerosene as the only alternative for preparing their meals.
The regime itself acknowledged this setback when, in March, Miguel Díaz-Canel ordered "to guarantee materials for cooking, from charcoal to firewood", an instruction that confirms the energy collapse and the abandonment of any claim to modernity.
The video also ties into the latest controversy surrounding the Cuban leader.
The child invites viewers to look for "the last video" of his father, which is about "Díaz-Canel's utopia," directly referring to the statements that the leader made to the foreign press: “The utopia is on the horizon… What is the purpose of utopia? To walk”.
The phrase, taken from writer Eduardo Galeano, was widely interpreted as an evasion without real solutions and triggered a wave of mockery and outrage among Cubans online.
The minor also addresses the cancellation of the humanitarian parole program, expressing frustration that reflects that of thousands of families: "So, why did they have to eliminate the parole? If not, we would have received it a long time ago."
In light of that situation, the father appears in the video with hope directed towards Washington: "I hope Trump frees this soon," to which his son adds: "I trust him too."
The food context surrounding the scene is equally serious.
The Minister of Food Industry, Alberto López Díaz, admitted in June that the regulated basket had not distributed oil, chicken, or yogurt so far this year. According to the Food Monitor Program, 96.91% of the Cuban population lacks adequate access to food, and 33.9% of households reported recent hunger.
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