A Cuban resident in the United States went viral after responding to a user who criticized her for buying her son an imitation backpack for school, a comment she used to spark a reflection on parenting, appearances, and the obsession with brands.
Rachel Téllez (@rachel_tellez2), a content creator known for her humorous videos about everyday life in Cuba, received the comment after promoting the backpack on her social media.
"But it's a very poor imitation, afterwards they mock him," wrote a user identified as Alejandro.
Rachel decided to respond directly in a video and made her stance clear from the start. First, she explained that her son studies at a school with few Cubans and that he has never come home saying that someone mocked him or another child for their clothes or belongings.
Then she approached the matter from her perspective as a mother: "My son wears whatever I want. I gave birth to him and I raise him my way."
The Cuban woman asserted that she is not willing to spend money unnecessarily just to project a certain image to others. "I'm not going to sacrifice, for example, 100 dollars that I could spend on something else that is much more needed, so that he can pretend to have a status," she stated.
To illustrate his point, he recounted that once his son fell in love with a pair of used shark slippers he found in a Goodwill store when they lived in Kentucky. They cost only five dollars, and as he described, the boy was delighted with them. "I wish, Alejandro, that you could have seen how happy my son was with those slippers," he recalled.
Rachel insisted that purchasing expensive or brand-name items is not an issue if a family can and wants to do so, but she questioned whether parents should financially sacrifice themselves just to maintain appearances. "Sometimes we want to give up a kidney to provide our children with what we think is best. And what is materially best may not necessarily be the best for their education," she reflected.
The content creator summarized her position with one of the most powerful phrases from the video: "Carrying a branded backpack to school doesn't make you a better person."
She also turned the initial comment about possible mocking around and focused on the education of the child who ridicules another for what they are wearing. "I hope your child is not one of the ones doing the mocking. Because if it's bad for your child to feel bad because of the mockery they faced, just imagine the child who mocks another," she expressed.
The response generated numerous supportive messages and sparked a debate among its followers about materialism and the importance some people place on brands as a status symbol.
«I had never seen someone respond to a comment like that; instead of being offended, he gave great advice,» wrote a follower. Other users questioned the habit of faking a financial situation through expensive clothing, shoes, and accessories. «The only one who lives by speculating is the Cuban, showing off five chains and eating fried eggs at home,» commented another person.
A Cuban mother residing in Spain also joined the debate and expressed her gratitude that her son is not materialistic: "We live in a world where appearance is more important than living, and people even stop eating to buy something material just so they can say 'I have this'."
Rachel finally condensed her message about parenting in the post description: "Raise your children to be neither victims nor aggressors."
What started as a critique of a "copycat" backpack ended up sparking a much broader conversation about appearances, materialism, and the values that parents pass on to their children.
The phenomenon of "especuladera" —a Cuban colloquial term for ostentation and putting on a show— has once again taken center stage in the debate. Other similar cases involving Cuban influencers have also faced criticism for their choices as mothers and have publicly responded by generating viral videos.
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