A Cuban septuagenarian grandmother, Lina Hernández, borrowed the melody from the Literacy Anthem —one of the great symbols of revolutionary propaganda— and turned it into a scathing parody of present-day Cuba that went viral on Facebook with over 360,000 views, 14,000 likes, 470 comments, and shared 1,000 times.
The video, which lasts only 22 seconds and is titled "Cuba hurts, damn it," features Hernández singing with a clarity that no official speech could refute: "Cuba, hunger, misery, blackouts, isolated without connection. I am a grandmother / who lives in this land / and does not agree / with the situation. / With a clear mind / I know my rights / and this is heading / towards destruction."
The choice of the anthem is neither casual nor innocent. The original was composed in 1961 by the musician Eduardo Saborit for the Conrado Benítez Brigades, the nearly 100,000 young people sent to rural areas during the National Literacy Campaign. Its chorus —“Cuba! Cuba! Study, work, rifle! Pencil, primer, manual! To educate, to educate! We will overcome!”— promised light, education, and victory.
More than six decades later, in a shattered country, Hernández's lyrics deliver the harsh reality: darkness, hunger, and destruction.
The parody arrives at a time when the Cuban energy crisis reaches historical levels. The Electric Union anticipated a supply of only 1,070 MW for Saturday, against a demand of 2,830 MW, covering just 38% of national consumption, with a maximum estimated shortfall of 1,790 MW.
Some circuits in Havana have experienced over 52 consecutive hours without electricity at the beginning of November. Cuba has experienced a total of eight nationwide blackouts so far in 2026.
This darkness is compounded by the scarcity of food, water, and medicines. More than 2.6 million Cubans faced serious water supply issues in October, with the hydraulic system operating on only a small fraction of the necessary fuel.
What the original anthem referred to as "conquering" now has another name: surviving. This is not the first time that Hernández humorously highlights the lack of water and power outages: in June, he published a 25-second video complaining about days without water or electricity at the same time, which quickly exceeded 86,000 views.
Residing in Havana and retired, Hernández is a prominent figure in Cuban critical humor on social media, boasting over 225,000 followers on Facebook and 73,000 followers on Instagram. Her profile—a grandmother who lived through the Revolution and now questions it with a "clear mind"—adds a symbolic weight that no regime official could comfortably ignore.
In March 2026, she had already starred in another viral video parodying the AKM rifle episode of Silvio Rodríguez.
The reactions in the comments mixed laughter with emotion and, in some cases, concern. "Clear as water," wrote one internet user. "What the grandmother sings is very true," noted another. However, a third person issued a warning that encapsulates the real risk of speaking out in Cuba: "Lina, be careful." Because on the island, singing the truth to the melody of the Revolution can come at a high cost.
Activist Lara Crofs shared the video of the retired woman along with an accurate description: "Lina Hernández is a grandmother who, through humor, perfectly portrays the struggles we Cubans face. We need more grandmothers like Lina, with her courage and clarity."
Among the hundreds of reactions, one internet user summed up the collective sentiment with a phrase that could very well serve as the epitaph for six decades of unfulfilled promises: "Oh, my Lina, Cuba hurts too much."
Filed under: