A young Cuban identified on TikTok as @leidianys.cutino shared a video of her return to Cuba and the embrace with her family, and the clip quickly melted hearts on the platform.
The video posted on TikTok displays such overwhelming joy, so impossible to disguise, that users' comments left no room for doubt: "That joy cannot be fake," they wrote.
“After so long dreaming of this moment, the day to embrace my family again has finally arrived,” wrote this young Cuban in the caption of the post, which has moved hundreds of Cubans who dream of being able to give that hug to their loved ones.
This type of video has become an unstoppable trend on TikTok. Cubans returning to the island—sometimes as a surprise, without warning—and capturing the exact moment when the door opens and the family appears on the other side. The separations often last for years, and when that hug finally comes, the camera captures it all: the tears, the shaking, the laughter mixed with tears.
So far this August, several of these reunions have gained significant attention. A young woman who returned after four years accumulated over 141,500 views in less than two days, and another reunion at a Cuban airport garnered nearly 13,700 views in just a few days.
The reason for that almost instantaneous virality is simple: millions of Cuban families, divided by exile, see themselves in those images. Watching someone else fulfill the promise of return serves as a collective catharsis.
The video by @leidianys.cutino is yet another in that long line of recorded hugs, but with a description that sums it up better than any comment: "Returning to Cuba was not just going back to a place, it was reconnecting with a part of my heart."
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