A Cuban resident in Tennessee became the star of a viral video by documenting his routine of purchasing fresh milk directly from his Amish neighbors, a Christian community that maintains a traditional lifestyle and produces some of their own food in a handcrafted manner.
Frank Martinez, known on TikTok as @little_emus_farm, posted the clip in early September and has garnered over 399,000 views, 22,200 "likes," and more than a thousand comments from users curious about that way of life.
In the video, Frank explains that he lives surrounded by Amish families in Tennessee. "I go to the Amish to get fresh milk. You know I don’t have a cow, but here I do have plenty of Amish," he says at the beginning of the clip.
What stands out the most is the price: $2.50 for a gallon of freshly squeezed milk, delivered in a glass jar with a visible layer of cream on top. "It had this much cream. How spectacular!" Frank comments while showing the container.
Her motivation is clear: her baby has just transitioned from organic formula to whole milk and she wants to provide the most natural product possible. "I want to give him the best milk possible," she says, adding from her personal experience that commercial milk, even when labeled as organic, "will always have a lot of preservatives, it will always have a lot of things that you don’t want to give to your kids."
According to Frank, his neighbors' cows are fed exclusively on grass and without commercial inputs. The Amish milk every morning, and according to his account, he brings his own container to receive the milk.
Frank also details some cultural peculiarities of his neighbors: they travel in horse-drawn carriages, wear traditional clothing, and impose restrictions on the use of certain modern technologies. "You can't record in their home. They are averse to anything related to technology, besides the fact that it's their home and their privacy," he clarifies in the video.
The Amish are an Anabaptist Christian community with roots in seventeenth-century Europe. Their life standards, known as Ordnung, regulate aspects ranging from clothing to the use of certain technologies and can vary between communities.
The case of Frank occurs amidst changes in the settlement patterns of the Cuban community in the United States. Cuban migration to states like Tennessee has gained visibility, with families settling outside traditional destinations in Florida and discovering new environments and ways of life.
"That milk for making dulce de leche or for making fresh cheese... that's life itself," concludes Frank in the video, enthusiastically summarizing his experience living alongside his Amish neighbors.
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