A Cuban resident in Curitiba, Brazil, shared a video on Facebook this week in which he details the numbers of his daily life as an emigrant: how much he earns, how much he pays in rent, and how much he sends each month to his family in Cuba.
Luis Enrique Zayas Marrero recorded a tour of his small kitchenette to show other Cubans —and those considering emigration— that life in Brazil is better than on the island, but is far from easy.
"It's just me here in Brazil, helping my family back in Cuba as well, and in the very near future, for next year, I want to bring my family out of Cuba too," he says in the video.
Luis Enrique works under a fixed contract — CLT modality — and earns 1,790 gross reais per month, just above the Brazilian minimum wage for 2026, set at 1,621 reais.
From that income, they deduct 107 reais for transportation vouchers, 144 reais for contributions to the INSS —the social security system for retirement— and one symbolic real for meals at work.
Food is precisely its greatest advantage: lunch and dinner at work come at no extra cost. "If I had to buy my own meals, I would have to spend around 400 to 500 reais to eat well here in Brazil," he explains, and that savings allows him to balance his budget.
For her kitchenette —a compact space with a kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom— she pays 750 reais per month, which includes water and electricity, below the usual range of 900 to 1,600 reais typically seen in Curitiba for such housing.
In addition to housing expenses, there are 65 reais for mobile internet with 26 gigabytes per month and 30 reais for shared Wi-Fi with a Brazilian neighbor.
With all that covered, every month he transfers between 400 and 500 reais to his family in Cuba. At the current market exchange rate—approximately 4.81 Cuban pesos per real—this amount translates to between 1,925 and 2,407 Cuban pesos, a figure that dramatically contrasts with the reality of the island: the official minimum wage in Cuba is 3,210 pesos, yet the cost of food for a single person exceeds 70,000 pesos monthly.
The testimony of Luis Enrique reflects a trend that has accelerated in the past two years. According to data from the Observatory of International Migrations in Brazil, Cubans exceeded Venezuelans in asylum applications in 2025 for the first time, with 41,919 applications —an increase of 88.1% compared to the previous year— accounting for 55.4% of the national total. By the first semester of 2026, they had already accumulated an additional 20,372 applications.
Curitiba, a city in the south of Brazil with a cold climate, has become one of the main hubs of Cuban settlement alongside São Paulo.
Other emigrants in that city have shared experiences similar to those of Luis Enrique: working below their qualifications, constant pressure from remittances and the ongoing tension between surviving and supporting those who were left behind.
Other Cubans in Brazil have warned that emigrating there is not the paradise that some imagine, although they acknowledge that there is stable electricity, available food, and access to formal employment with labor rights.
Luis Enrique sums it up with a phrase that resonated with his followers: "Emigrating is not easy, but when you have a family waiting for you, you find the strength to move forward."
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