A young Cuban woman residing in Uruguay humorously shared the mistakes she made upon arriving in the South American country, from going out to look for work at eight in the morning to using words that are completely innocent in Cuba but carry a different connotation in the Río de la Plata.
The user @meladiaz_06 posted the reel titled "Foolish things I did when I first arrived from Cuba to Uruguay" and garnered dozens of likes and comments, featuring reactions from both Cubans and Uruguayans who immediately identified with the situations described.
The first setback she describes is going out to deliver resumes early in the morning, convinced that waking up early would give her an advantage in her job search.
"Going out to deliver my resume at 8 in the morning, and I'm unemployed... everything was closed, and I found out that mainly in winter, places open after 10 in the morning," she shared with a laugh.
In Cuba, establishments usually operate early, so the slower pace of Uruguayan commerce surprised the young woman.
Another shock was the climate-related one: "In Uruguay, you can't rely on the temperature," he warned, referring to the variability of the weather in the country, which can change drastically in just a few hours.
A third episode was the use of the word "coger" at work. In Cuba, the verb is used regularly—coger un taxi, coger el autobús—but in Rioplatense Spanish, it has a sexual connotation that elicited laughter from his Uruguayan colleagues.
The linguistic clash is one of the most documented experiences among Cubans emigrating to the Southern Cone, and the video by @meladiaz_06 illustrates it with authenticity.
It also sparked debate over the price of a t-shirt that the young woman mentioned seeing for 4,000 Uruguayan pesos.
"A t-shirt for $4000? I've never seen such an outrageous price for a t-shirt in Uruguay," questioned one follower, to which another replied, "In any store along the Punta del Este-José Ignacio axis, they are priced that way. In fact, $4000 is a bargain; I've seen t-shirts for $25,000."
The video is set against a backdrop of a historical migration phenomenon. In 2025, more than 22,000 Cubans arrived in Uruguay, nearly triple the number recorded in 2024.
This massive flow has created an active digital ecosystem where Cuban emigrants document their adaptation experiences on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, from vocabulary differences to the high cost of living, a recurring theme among Cubans in Uruguay.
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