Bia Martínez, a Cuban who emigrated to Italy at the age of 24, posted a video over five minutes long on TikTok in which she reflects on what it means to have spent half of her life outside of Cuba, the duality of belonging to two cultures, and the pain she feels when returning to the island knowing that her parents are no longer there.
“I am Cuban and I live in Italy, and today I come to tell you a truth: I am so accustomed to Italy that sometimes I ask myself how much of me is Cuban and how much is Italian,” she says at the beginning of the testimony, which has garnered 18,000 views, over 1,100 “likes,” and 202 comments.
Bia is 49 years old today and has lived in Italy for exactly 25 years, the same amount of time she lived in Cuba before emigrating.
In the video, he describes how the adaptation has been so profound that he can no longer eat savory for breakfast: "I've gotten so used to cappuccino in the morning and brioche that even when I go to Cuba, I take it with me because I can't stand having a savory breakfast anymore."
But the nostalgia for Cuba also does not fade away.
"I still need to clean barefoot, splashing water, the neighbor who calls you for coffee," she confesses, and resorts to an Italian expression to describe her permanent state: "Sometimes I feel like the Italians say: neither meat nor fish, because Cuba is my land, my roots, my greatest love."
One of the most emotional moments of the testimony is when he/she talks about his/her parents.
His father passed away in Cuba in 2019 and his mother in 2022 in Italy, where she even received a liver transplant thanks to the Italian healthcare system, an episode that Bia preferred to set aside for another video because, as she said, she didn't want to cry that day.
"I lost so much time on this side, losing the affection from the other side, trying to give them a better life, and then you realize that you lost them, and you weren't there," he acknowledges with a mix of guilt and resignation.
He has a house in Cuba, near where his parents lived, hoping to return one day if, in his words, "his homeland changes."
Her children, on the other hand, grew up in Italy, and it is there that the family she built is located: "Italy is my current life, it is my future, it is my children, my home, the family I have created."
Bia Martínez's story reflects an experience shared by many Cubans in Europe.
According to data from the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) collected by TuttiItalia, the Cuban community residing in Italy reached 26,476 people as of January 1, 2025, an increase of 6.9% compared to the previous year. Women make up a significant majority within the Cuban community in Italy: 18,175, compared to 8,301 men.
Lombardy has the highest number of Cuban residents, with 5,341, followed by Lazio with 3,158, and Emilia-Romagna with 2,687.
This type of testimony has become a distinct genre within the content of the Cuban diaspora on social media, where the migratory grief —the distance from family, the nostalgia, and the feeling of belonging to two places— serves as the common thread of stories that resonate with those living the same experience thousands of kilometers away from the island.
Other Cuban women have shared similar stories: a compatriot living in a village of 50 inhabitants revealed the intricacies of adapting to rural life in Italy, and another told of the pain of saying goodbye to her grandmother before boarding the plane, unaware that she would never see her again.
"I only hope that one day I can feel happy in one place without missing the other," concludes Bia Martínez, "although I believe it will be very difficult."
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