The Peruvian YouTuber BROBA (@broba222) visited Los Pocitos, one of the most impoverished settlements in Havana, and documented a reality characterized by precarious housing built alongside a polluted river, power outages that can last up to 12 hours, and families facing serious difficulties in meeting basic needs.
The tour of this community in the Marianao municipality, published on YouTube, allowed the creator to speak directly with some of its residents and hear firsthand how they describe their daily lives.
"Very tough, very tough," responded a neighbor when BROBA asked her what it was like living there.
The woman didn't need to elaborate much to explain one of the main issues in the neighborhood.
"There's never any light on the first floor. It goes out every day. For about 10 hours, 12 hours," he stated.
Los Pocitos is located on the banks of the Quibú River, one of the most polluted waterways in Cuba, in the municipality of Marianao, about twenty minutes from downtown Havana. A large part of the settlement has been built by its own residents, with homes constructed in precarious conditions and, in some areas, practically over the river.
BROBA explained that many families end up building there due to the lack of housing alternatives: living beside the contaminated watercourse becomes, for some, the only option rather than being left homeless.
The visit to Los Pocitos was not the youtuber's first encounter with the difficulties faced by Cubans.
On his first day in Havana, BROBA documented a series of issues that began almost immediately upon his arrival in the country.
A taxi driver told him that getting fuel could mean waiting in line for up to eight hours, while the amount available for each buyer was limited, according to his testimony, to between 20 and 40 liters.
When the creator tried to buy a SIM card from ETECSA, he found the office closed due to a power outage. Without internet access and without Cuban pesos, he ended up turning to the informal market to exchange his dollars.
The video dedicated to Los Pocitos, published in May 2026, surpassed 57,000 views on YouTube.
BROBA is part of a growing number of foreign creators who have traveled to Cuba and used their platforms to showcase a reality that is far removed from the traditional tourist image of the island. In recent months, Youtubers from various countries have documented blackouts, poverty, shortages, and urban decay, also generating numerous comments from Cubans who recognize in those images situations they experience daily.
With the deteriorated buildings of the capital on one side and the Florida Strait on the other, BROBA reflected on the distance between the reality he had just begun to discover and what the sea represents for generations of Cubans.
"Behind me is a city in ruins that constantly struggles to survive. But in front of me is the infinite ocean with waves that scream freedom," he expressed.
And he concluded with a particularly symbolic phrase in a country from which millions of people have emigrated for decades:
"The weight of that word is even heavier when you realize that freedom is just 90 miles away."
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