Eunice Frometa, a habanera who emigrated to Spain five years ago, described in an interview published this Tuesday on the YouTube channel of journalist Juanje Diánez how her 27 years under the Cuban regime unfolded: chronic scarcity, indoctrination from childhood, and a constant fear of expressing any dissenting opinion.
The testimony covered her childhood in Havana to her decision to leave Cuba while five months pregnant, moving thousands of Cubans both on the island and abroad who identified with her story.
"The Cuban who lives inside Cuba can easily choose not to live. It's not life," stated Eunice, known on social media as "Nise."
Regarding his childhood, he described a normality built on deprivation: without shoes, without toys, without treats. The indoctrination began at the age of five, when children learned to read not with everyday words, but with political slogans. "You can't learn to read with the tree or the flowers, no. You have to learn to read with 'Long live Fidel', 'Fidel is good', 'Fidel is a great revolutionary', and that is indoctrination," he noted.
Every morning, the students gather in the schoolyard to sing the anthem and recite slogans during the so-called "morning sessions," a practice that Eunice normalized over the years without questioning it.
The energy crisis also held a central place in her account. When she lived in Cuba, power outages lasted two or three hours; now, "it’s normal not to have electricity," and cooking with firewood has become a common practice. The ration book, which used to guarantee one kilogram of rice per person each month, now provides that same amount every three months.
Commentators in the video provided specific figures: the euro is equivalent to 1,010 Cuban pesos, while a dozen eggs costs 4,100 pesos and a bottle of oil costs 2,100 pesos, compared to pensions that range between 1,000 and 3,000 pesos.
One of the hardest passages was regarding the healthcare system. Eunice's mother waited two months in pain to undergo gallbladder surgery because there was no anesthesia or supplies. She was only operated on when her daughter sent 200 euros from Spain: in less than 16 hours, she was in the operating room. "People are dying in the hallways of hospitals in Cuba," she reported.
It was the fear of giving birth without medical guarantees that accelerated her decision to emigrate. During her second pregnancy, she suffered from anemia, a kidney infection, and inflammation of the liver, and with a history of a previous hemorrhage, she concluded that she could not take the risk. She arrived in Seville five months pregnant; her youngest son was born in Spain.
Eunice also recalled the July 11, 2021 protests, which she described as "the largest uprising" since the revolution. She felt then "the greatest fear and the greatest joy" at the same time, but the subsequent repression quickly extinguished that hope.
Regarding everyday repression, he mentioned the case of Anna Bensi, a 21-year-old girl sentenced to two years of house arrest for expressing opinions contrary to the regime from her home, and the case of the boys from El4tico, young people imprisoned for posting videos on social media denouncing the reality in Cuba.
Eunice closed her testimony with a phrase that encapsulates her experience: "Cuba has given me life, but the act of migrating, meaning to Spain, has taught me how to live it."
The video generated dozens of comments from Cubans residing all over the world. A follower who still lives on the Island summarized what many feel: "I am Cuban and I still live in Cuba. I am 21 years old and I have always thought it’s incredible how we normalize so many things here, like having nothing, in every sense of the word. Here we don’t live; we survive."
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