A Cuban resident on the island explained this Friday, through a video published on TikTok, the reasons that led her to leave the United States after four years of living there and return to Cuba with her family.
Massiel Trimiño, known on social media as @massiemtrimio, recorded the testimony in response to the questions she constantly receives from her online community, which has grown since she shared her story for the first time.
According to his account, the decision was not easy: he emigrated to the U.S. leaving behind his daughter, who was just a small child at the time. "I lived in the United States for four years. I had to leave my family behind; in my case, it was my daughter, and at that moment, she was just a child," he explained.
Over time, Trimiño managed to regularize her immigration status, but the processes for her husband and daughter remained unresolved. After four years of waiting, the couple realized that the paperwork for their daughter could take several more years.
"The moment came when we asked ourselves: do we really want to keep waiting so many years apart? Then we decided to go back," he stated.
The tiktoker acknowledged that her decision causes misunderstanding among many, but defended each family's right to act according to their own circumstances. "Many people don't understand that decision, and others might, but in the end, each family lives its own story and makes decisions based on what they feel is best for them," she pointed out.
Trimiño also rejected the idea that returning is equivalent to giving up. "Returning does not mean surrendering. For me, it means finding another way to move forward, learning to overcome every barrier that life puts in your way," he stated.
The public announcement of his return occurred in March 2026, when he clarified that it was not a definitive farewell to the U.S., as he maintained a migratory status that would allow him to return if he chose to. At that time, his daughter had been in the process of application for approximately two and a half years.
Shortly after, she began to document her home renovation in Cuba on social media, showcasing her process of readjusting to life on the island.
The case of Trimiño is not an isolated one. Other Cubans have made similar decisions in recent months: a 23-year-old young woman returned from Costa Rica in May because her five-year-old daughter was struggling to adapt, and another emigrant announced his definitive return with his entire family in July.
However, return trips are a minority compared to the magnitude of the Cuban exodus in recent years. An independent estimate by economist and demographer Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos calculated that approximately 1.79 million people had left Cuba between 2022 and 2023. On the other hand, data from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) shows that trips to the island by Cubans residing abroad fell by 22.6% in 2025 compared to the previous year, decreasing from 294,816 to 228,091, while between January and April 2026, the year-on-year decline reached 41.2%.
"Life is too uncertain. One makes plans thinking they have all the time in the world, and then you realize that's not the case," Trimiño concluded in his video.
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