The Cuban salsa musician Rey Ruiz published a video on his Facebook account this Tuesday titled Outpouring of a Cuban, in which he expresses with rawness his pain regarding the situation facing the island for almost eight minutes. In just seven hours, the recording garnered over 25,000 views, more than a thousand reactions, and over 220 comments.
The singer, known as "The Salsa Sweetheart," admitted that he rehearsed the video three or four times before recording it and acknowledged that he hesitated until the last moment about whether to make it public: "I don't know if I should post it or not, but I'm speaking out for that reason, to vent."
A Cuban who has been seeing the world for 30 years
Rey Ruiz has been living outside of Cuba for over three decades, residing in Miami, and he believes that this experience allows him to speak knowledgeably about the situation on the island.
After traveling throughout Latin America and the rest of the world, his conclusion is clear: “I visit all of Latin America, the whole world, every place, and there is no place worse than my country. And it makes me so sad, I feel so ashamed.”
The salsa singer, who left Cuba in 1991 in search of "money and democracy", did not hold back in his remarks about those within the island who support the regime.
"Impossible, one must be blind, deaf, and mute to agree with that, because there is nothing worse. I don't understand it, I truly don't understand it," he asserted.
"67 years of poverty, of bad things."
One of the most striking moments in the video came when Rey Ruiz put numbers to the Cuban tragedy: “You must agree that what exists there is 67 years of poverty, of bad things. I was born into that, lived almost 25 years, and I know exactly what it is.”
The singer identified two major damages caused by the regime.
First, cultural deterioration: "Culture has completely fallen apart. This is not a criticism, it is an observation."
Secondly, the isolation of knowledge: "The knowledge of the world. They know nothing."
His diagnosis about the future was no less bleak: “I hope that some miracle saves us, something saves us, because if we continue like this, we are going nowhere.”
The call for unity
In response to the implicit question of what to do, Rey Ruiz acknowledged his limitations.
"We are sure that we can't do anything, we can only resist, resist, and resist until someone with a heart has the opportunity to save us, whether it be the United States or another country, or someone who says no more to those people," he stated.
He also extended a hand to the Cubans on the island, asking them to put an end to mutual reproaches.
“I cannot offer any solutions, but I want to say from here that every Cuban who is here thinks about the Cuban who is there. If nobody else does it, we have to do it ourselves, I don’t know how,” he pointed out.
"I am just another citizen of Cuba."
Anticipating criticism from those who believe that artists should not express opinions on politics, Rey Ruiz was categorical: “I am a musician, I don’t have to get involved in this, but I like to bring people together. I am just another citizen of Cuba and I have the right to talk about politics just like any other Cuban citizen, wherever I may be.”
Rey Ruiz concluded his message with a stark warning directed at the Cubans who remain on the island: "It needs to be resolved. If no one resolves it, it will continue like this. Without water, without electricity, without food. Without dignity. Without anything. From here, from the other shore."
The video adds to a movement of exiled artists who have intensified their criticisms of the regime in 2026.
In recent months, Manolín "the Doctor of Salsa" referred to the regime as "a tragedy," while Gente de Zona described Cuba as a country going through "the worst moment in its history."
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