A Holguin native who currently resides in The Savior He is impressed by the quality of life in that country, stating that, regardless of what you earn, you never lack food, in contrast to the situation in Cuba.
Istvan Zaldivar Ricardoa native of the Holguín municipality of Mayarí, considered that emigrating to that country was a good decision due to the conditions he found, as he said in a video published by the Facebook page Nuestro El Salvador.
“It has many good things,” confessed this man who at the age of 57 decided to flee Cuba in search of a better future. “With a salary, no matter how minimal, you can live. The person, whether he earns a lot or earns little, can eat well”.
He pointed out that working as a bricklayer’s assistantyou can buy food, clothing, and cover other basic needs, a reality very different from what you left in your country of origin.
He said that in Cuba he worked in a sugar mill, then in two security companies, “and the last job I had was providing security in a construction company.”
According to Zaldívar, he gave up his house in Cuba, his family and his job stability to start from scratch in El Salvador, working as a bricklayer’s assistant.
In 2019, both in March and November, he received a visit from a Salvadoran pastor, who was a friend of his, and little by little The idea arose that I would go to live in El Salvador.
“To spend some time, see if I liked the country and could bring my family, that’s how the idea arose. They raised the money and brought me,” he said.
In his new country of residence, he has also been pleasantly impressed with the gastronomic culture.
In contrast to the food precariousness in Cubain El Salvador he has tried dishes such as “pupusa”, a type of rice or corn tortilla that is filled with cheese, beans, fried pork, among other ingredients.
Iguana and tilapia are two of the foods that have made the best impression on him.
“I don’t miss Cuban food because since my wife arrived we are eating what we ate there,” he noted.
In a joking way he said that he does miss a cookie “there is one that if you bite it you leave the tooth behind”.
“Here (in El Salvador) we eat what we want to eat, as there is everything,” he noted. “Not like in other cases, where you don’t eat“, he expressed, hinting the sad reality that exists in Cuba today.
Like any emigrant fleeing Cuba, Zaldívar said that last September he managed to get his wife off the island: “And soon we are going to bring at least two of our children.”
He also explained that both are doctors, since in the Caribbean country it is the profession that “has the most possibilities for go on missionand that is where the situations that cannot be solved there (Cuba) are resolved.”
Although not all the stories of Cuban emigrants are the same, they do share the fact that starting life again in another nation is hard, but preferable to continuing in the Caribbean country, with constant human rights violations and a worsening economic crisis.
Last May, the Cuban youtuber Yoliska Navarroknown as Yolienehe shared to his followers everything he has achieved after six months living in the United States.
“You know more than anyone how much I wanted and fought to be here, which still seems incredible to me,” he said in a video on his YouTube account.
Yoliene revealed that in this semester she has achieved very simple but unimaginable things in Cuba, such as becoming independent or having her own car. But the most important thing is that she has been able to travel and see cities like Miami, New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle.
Also in May, a Cuban resident in Spain shared a video in which he reflected on the feelings that come over you when you visit a supermarket to do your weekly shopping.
The young man, who was in a Mercadona establishment-a Spanish supermarket chain-, said in a video published on the account of TikTok robertalvablogs that stops For Cubans leaving the island for the first time, it is a “shock to see so much food and products” from different brands.which is something that is not seen in Cuba.
