Eduardo N. Cordoví Hernández shares in his diary how many Cubans miss their country without having left it physically. He describes everyday shortages and mental emigration as factors eroding Cuba's essence. Despite the pain, he affirms that love for the homeland grows stronger.
In a diary entry published on Havana Times on November 1, 2025, Eduardo N. Cordoví Hernández reflects on the feeling of missing Cuba while living in it. Part of the text draws from a Facebook post by Fernando Ramos on April 23, 2023, capturing emotions shared by many who remain on the island.
Cordoví explains that Cubans begin to 'leave' their country long before physically departing: when they stop imagining a future there, when they no longer want to grow old in their birthplace. 'I used to think that missing Cuba was something that only happened to those who left. Today I see that’s not true. I miss my country while living in it,' he writes.
He portrays Cuba not as a geographic territory or ideological system, but as family, neighbors, street corner, joyful people, coffee, rum, talent, and spirituality. Yet, scarcity 'tending toward infinity' and everyday senselessness are sweeping these elements away. Basic meals have become luxuries; water is scarce or not potable in densely populated cities. Matches are expensive and rare; Cordoví built an electric lighter using a saltwater jar, but now even gas is unobtainable, and transporting it consumes a third of his pension.
The fuel crisis affects cooking and transportation, normalizing into a spiral of despair that drives departure. Each emigrant takes 'a piece of your life’s puzzle,' leaving empty routines, absent familiar faces at birthdays, and a contagious 'empty-nest syndrome.' 'Missing' has become a national feeling; every child born in Cuba is a potential emigrant.
Despite it all, Cordoví reaffirms his love for the homeland, quoting José Martí: '…love of one’s mother, of one’s country, is not the ridiculous love for the land or the grass our feet tread upon…'. A university professor adds: '…we cannot tie it exclusively to the idea of resistance… the homeland is the construction of a future, the realization of dreams, collective achievements. The pride of being Cuban is not built only from references to that glorious past… We must break away from the idea of a narrow patriotism anchored solely to geography'.