From our suddenly busy Bureau of Startling Statistics with some assistance from our Bureau of YoYo Ethics
A guest on a Cuban podcast made a startling statement that has apparently caused quite a bit of buzz on social media. Yes, he’s probably joking, but what he said has struck a raw nerve in the diaspora community, probably because it is well known that some YoYos actually do go to Cuba as tourists, stay in Castro, Inc. hotels, and carry on as if they were foreign tourists on the hunt for pleasures. Ay, Dios mio. Lord have mercy.
From CiberCuba
A Cuban based in Miami made a controversial statement about the reasons why many Cuban Americans travel to the island during an episode of the program Los Tortilleros 305.
In their opinion, most of those who visit Cuba do so with intentions of tourism and leisure.
“Of that 100 percent that goes to Cuba daily, 80 percent only has beaches and prostitutes on their minds, thinking that with 100 pesos (U.S. dollars) they can have six girls in their bed,” stated one of the panelists on the program broadcast on YouTube, which had a wide impact on TikTok.
Meanwhile, he added that only the remaining 20 percent travel to see their relatives and provide them with help because they miss them.
These statements generated debate among the Cuban community in Miami, as they touch on a sensitive issue related to the motivations and realities of those who travel to Cuba from abroad.
Regardless of what the true percentage may be, there has never been much question that there is a significant level of relajo going on, because the only real control is how much people here can afford to spend on trips, remittances, goods and so on–in other words, if they could spend more, they would.
Even those who go for “family” reasons end up going for frivolous things like their niece’s quince. As long as Cubans outside of Cuba continue to provide the lifeblood of dollars to the regime, there will be no change.
Alas, Cubans are not a serious people, nor especially concerned over what Martí called decoro. To him that was a FAR bigger deal than it’s ever been to average Cubans, but he was an aberration.