A Cuban, transformed into the digital character Ramona Morejón, is turning some of the most serious issues of daily life in Cuba into humor: from the price of oil and eggs to blackouts, the depreciation of the peso, and the scarcity of sugar.
This is a fictional character whose letters, shared this August through the Instagram account @al_blanco95, use satire and absurdity to portray an economic crisis that has very real consequences for millions of Cubans.
"This crisis has to come with a sense of humor," Ramona asserts, and from there she turns each shortcoming into raw material for a biting analysis of contemporary Cuba.
In one of his letters dedicated to the market, the character reflects on a product that has almost become a luxury for many families: oil.
"The oil went up before anyone else, worked out, studied economics, and woke up with a price that seemed like it arrived on a private jet. Yesterday it cost one thing, and today it costs four times more. That's not inflation; that's oil pursuing a university degree at full speed," he jokes.
The humorous exaggeration has a concerning reality behind it. The price of oil, which was around 1,500 Cuban pesos (CUP) in April, ranged between 4,000 and 7,000 CUP in August, according to reports on its marketing in different provinces.
Eggs are not exempt from Ramona's unique economy either. In Santiago de Cuba, prices of up to 7,500 CUP have been reported for a carton of 30 units, a figure that the character transforms into another absurd scene.
"Before, one would buy a carton and feel like they were bringing food for the family. Now, one buys a carton and feels like they are making a long-term investment. At this rate, we’ll have to keep them in a safe and ask the bank for permission to fry an omelet."
From blackouts to "smart shadows"
The satire also directly targets some of the Cuban government's responses to the crisis.
One of its targets is Miguel Díaz-Canel's announcement regarding the possible use of artificial intelligence tools to seek a more equitable distribution of blackouts, a proposal that sparked widespread mockery on social media.
Ramona imagines what it would be like to live under that new technological modality.
"Now there will be planned, elegant blackouts with technology. Perhaps we'll even receive a notification on our phones that says: dear citizen, your darkness will begin at seven in the evening. Thank you for trusting our intelligent shadow system."
Díaz-Canel spoke about the use of these tools on August 7, without specifying when they would be implemented. The announcement came amid an energy crisis that has caused six total disconnections of the National Electric System so far in 2026, as well as days with prolonged power outages in numerous provinces.
Ramona's mockery highlights that very contradiction: incorporating artificial intelligence into the management of a system that is unable to guarantee something as basic as keeping the lights on.
“Millions of pesos” that buy less and less each time
The national currency plays a prominent role in another of the character's letters.
Ramona ironically describes the loss of purchasing power of the Cuban peso and the enormous amount of cash that a family needs to buy just a few products.
"Today, you have to go out with a backpack full of money to come back with a small bag of things, or with a bottle of oil," he laments.
But it is another phrase that more starkly summarizes the deterioration of the currency: "The saddest thing isn't having millions of pesos. The saddest thing is having millions of pesos and not being able to find anything to buy."
Satire once again finds support in the numbers. The dollar reached 673 CUP in the informal market on August 8, while the minimum wage stands at 3,210 CUP per month. The official year-on-year inflation rate was 18.27% in June, according to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).
The comparison highlights the seriousness that lies behind the joke: a monthly minimum wage is not even sufficient to buy five dollars in the informal market.
When sugar becomes a memory
Not even sugar, one of the products historically associated with Cuba, escapes the universe of Ramona.
The collapse of the sugar industry has led the government to promote alternatives such as stevia, and the character takes that reality to the absurd.
"Before long, coffee will not contain sugar; it will carry the aroma of sugar. Sweetness will become a spiritual experience. One will taste it and say: it's not sweet, but I remember a time when something was sweet."
The joke touches on one of the most apparent symbols of the country's economic decline: Cuba, long identified worldwide with sugar production, is experiencing a crisis that has turned this product into yet another headache for consumers.
Laughing to convey a reality that now seems absurd
Ramona Morejón joins a very Cuban tradition: using humor to confront situations that, when told literally, may even seem difficult to believe.
In the midst of the current crisis, social media has amplified this resource. Creators like Loky Kubah, whose video on the "impossible arithmetic" of salaries and prices reached over 1.4 million views, or the comedian Otto Ortiz, who recently joked about the high cost of oil, have turned economic struggles into material for satire.
The mechanism is similar: to take an already absurd reality to the point of absurdity.
Behind the jokes about eggs stored in safes, oils with a "college degree," and blackouts managed through "smart shadows," there are issues that shape the daily lives of millions: insufficient wages, inflation, scarcity, power outages, and a currency that is losing purchasing power.
Perhaps that's why one of the final lines from Ramona also serves as an explanation for the success of this type of humor among Cubans:
"If we don't laugh ourselves, who will understand this extreme sport of trying to make it to the end of the month?"
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