A young Cuban resident in Guyana shared on TikTok on Tuesday the moment she reunited with her family in Cuba after three years of separation, in a video that captures the emotional reunion and quickly garnered thousands of views.
The protagonist, identified as Lidney on the platform, arrived by car where her family was waiting for her on the street. Upon getting out of the vehicle, her mother and loved ones rushed toward her and embraced her in tears of joy.
"Reuniting with my family after 3 years. Thank you, my God, for so much," the young woman wrote while describing the three-minute and 18-second clip.
The video is part of a trend that continues on TikTok in 2026: Cuban émigrés returning to the island after years of absence and capturing the moment of reunion with their families. These clips, filled with hugs and tears, regularly go viral and reflect the human drama of the Cuban exodus.
The case of Lidney has a particular migratory context: Guyana has become one of the emerging destinations for Cuban emigration, driven by the country's oil boom and the elimination of the visa requirement for island citizens.
The return to Cuba is neither easy nor frequent. The cost of tickets can exceed 1,000 dollars, a barrier that postpones reunions for years. Visits by emigrants to the island fell by 22.6% in 2025, with only 228,091 returns compared to 294,816 in 2024, making each embrace a particularly rare event for separated families.
In this context, videos like Lidney's —tagged with #reencuentrocubano and #cubanosporelmundo— are shared week after week on social media, featuring separations that range from three to 20 years, and depicting similar scenes in airports, streets, and homes across the island.
After three years away from her loved ones, Lidney summed up in a few words what thousands of Cubans around the world long to experience: "Thank you, my God, for so much."
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