Manuel Viera, a Cuban lawyer and political activist residing in Brazil, published a comparison this Wednesday on Facebook between the ordeal of changing oil in a car in Cuba and the experience he had this week at a Brazilian auto shop, where he bought his first vehicle a few months ago.
The contrast described by Viera in his Facebook post is striking: in Cuba, owning a car meant searching for filters on Revolico —the informal online classifieds market— traveling from Playa municipality to Lawton or San Miguel to collect them from a seller operating in fear of the police, and ending up at a gas station where the attendant offered a bulk liquid of uncertain origin.
"Changing the car oil in Cuba was complicated. You search on Revolico, find a filter that's increasingly expensive, and then go from Playa to Lawton or San Miguel to look for it in the middle of day and night because the seller is always wary of the police. After that, you search for a service station where the attendant has a bulk, viscous liquid that he usually claims is Castrol 20W50 oil. In the end, you come home with a sore behind and you don't even know what you put in the car," he wrote.
In Brazil, the experience was radically different.
The gas station he visited offered oil filters of all brands, air and fuel filters, various types of oil, demineralized water, and radiator coolant, all clearly visible and priced.
The engine and transmission oil change, along with new oil, fuel, and air filters, cost 280 reais; with new coolant for the radiator, the total came to 300 reais, about 60 dollars.
"You see each container, you see each filter, you see how they wash each tank and clean it with air. The greaser looks like a doctor in white clothes," described Viera, who added that while the technician worked, he sat waiting with a soda in a seat designated for customers.
At the end, the workshop placed a sticker indicating the exact mileage at which each fluid should be changed.
"You don't lose a single neuron in the process, and you head home at ease knowing that your engine and transmission are running on some of the best oils in the world, not on bee honey," he concluded.
Viera arrived alone in Brazil after selling his house and the Argentine Dodge inherited from his father to fund his departure. He was explicit from the start: he was leaving for political reasons, not economic ones. In 2021, he had been summoned for questioning in Villa Marista after publishing an open letter to Díaz-Canel denouncing the food crisis and the inability to obtain orthopedic boots for his daughter.
For over a year in Brazil, he worked in jobs far from his profession: meat processor, baker, messenger, and shelf stocker in a supermarket. In a short time, he was able to reunite with his wife and daughter, and a few months ago, he bought his first car in the country.
This is not the first comparison that Viera has made go viral. In September 2026, he shared an image of his nearly empty refrigerator in Cuba next to a full one in Brazil, accompanied by an ironic closing: "Thank you, Communist Party of Cuba. Thank you, State Security Department. Grateful to all of you."
Cuban emigration to Brazil is not an isolated phenomenon: in 2025, more than 41,900 asylum applications from Cubans were submitted in that country, an increase of 88% compared to the previous year, making Cuba the leading nationality applying for asylum in Brazil.
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