The Cuban influencer Robert Evangelista published a reel on Instagram this Wednesday in which he demands more gratitude towards the Cuban emigrants who send money to their families on the island, regardless of how small the amount may be.
The video emerged from a conversation that Evangelista overheard casually, in which someone was complaining that a relative abroad had "only" sent 70 or 100 pesos. The content creator's reaction was immediate.
"The one on the other side is not obligated to see things from this side, because the one on the other side has to work for it, work for it like it's not done here," he stated in the video.
Evangelista described with starkness the conditions of those living outside of Cuba: people who "often do not sleep, who do not go out, and who have no time for themselves." In light of that sacrifice, he deemed it unacceptable for anyone to complain about receiving 20, 30, or 50 pesos in assistance.
"He sends you 20, 30, 40, 50 pesos. He is helping you, not doing things just for himself, to take you into account. You need to be a bit more grateful," he pointed out.
The influencer also pointed out a dynamic that, according to him, has become normalized on the island: that of turning emigrants into automatic providers.
"We have adapted to create social paradises for those over there," he said, adding that every Cuban must fight for their own instead of depending on those who left.
In one of the most straightforward moments of the video, he drew a comparison between the working conditions on both sides: "The person cleaning the floor over there has to clean their floor over there [...] the person cleaning the floor over here, between breaks, has time to smoke a cigarette, grab a coffee, and find out what happened in their neighborhood."
Evangelista connected this mentality of dependency with the Cuban political system: "Communism has not ended the mind, as far as we are moving forward."
Upon closing the video, the creator revealed that he earns 3,500 dollars a month and still understands the burden of each shipment.
His final message was direct: "Value your family a little more, stop treating them as normal; if that person sends 20, 30, 40, 50 pesos from hungry women, it is 3,500 dollars."
This is not the first gesture from Evangelista that has drawn attention on social media. Last May, the influencer publicly rejected 700 dollars per post to promote food combos with delivery to Cuba, arguing that his audience on the island could not afford them.
"My conscience and my dignity are not worth seven hundred dollars," he declared at that time.
The debate that this new video opens is not new in the Cuban diaspora. In July, a Cuban resident in Spain asked her family on the island to appreciate "even a piece of gum, a candy, a lollipop" sent from abroad.
And this month, another Cuban in the United States reported sending 300 dollars a month—200 for food and 100 in cash— to her father and two other people, yet she still receives complaints that "it's not enough."
The tension has a structural background: remittances account for 8.3% of Cuba's GDP and reach nearly 70% of the population, according to data from regional economic organizations.
However, formal remittances plummeted from nearly 2 billion dollars in 2023 to just 81.6 million in 2024, a drop that reflects both the regime's restrictions and the exhaustion of those who emigrated.
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