The Room is No Longer the Same

For decades, Cubans have used a phrase that, blending humor with resignation, encapsulates the country's stagnation: "the room is just the same."

This saying would surface when someone returned home or faced reality, only to find that everything remained unchanged: the poverty, the long lines, the speeches, the unfulfilled promises.

Over time, the "room" became a symbol of a nation stuck in time, a closed space where nothing alters despite the passing years.

However, today, there's movement. The room is no longer the same.

The new Cuban generation is prying open windows in that dusty room. Young creators, activists, and everyday citizens are shedding their fear and reclaiming their voice.

Initiatives like El4tico and Out of the Box Cuba, along with figures such as Anna Sofía Benítez, are part of a civic awakening of a new generation that refuses to merely survive.

These young people are utilizing social media to reveal what the authorities conceal: that Cuba exists under a totalitarian, corrupt, and exhausted system where expressing an opinion is risky, and silence has become a form of internal death.

The case of El4tico starkly illustrates this. After releasing a series of videos exposing the repressive and exploitative nature of the Cuban power structure, two of its members, Kamil Zayas Pérez and Ernesto Ricardo Medina, were arrested in Holguín.

Their equipment was seized, and their families placed under surveillance. Shortly thereafter, a posthumous letter penned by Kamil revealed he had anticipated his arrest: "They don't arrest me for stealing; they arrest me for the one crime a dictatorship cannot tolerate: thinking independently."

But what the regime didn't foresee was the resonance. Dozens of young people responded on social media with videos, messages, and campaigns under the hashtag #WeAreAllEl4tico. Artists, activists, and other civil society actors have come forward to denounce this latest abuse by State Security.

In their messages, they echo a pivotal idea: "They didn't arrest El4tico; they kidnapped the voice of all Cubans." It reflects a generation speaking not from fear, but from dignity.

This social change is unfolding in an unprecedented political context. Following the capture of Nicolás Maduro and the collapse of the Chavista apparatus, Cuba has lost its main ally and supplier, leaving it more exposed and isolated than ever.

The United States, under the leadership of Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, has implemented a robust strategy of regional pressure against the dictatorships of the Bolivarian axis. In this new geopolitical landscape, Havana finds itself with no room to maneuver as its internal crisis—economic, moral, and political—deepens.

Nonetheless, the most significant transformation isn't occurring within the power offices, but in people's minds.

Every video, letter, and public denunciation demonstrates that Cuban society is changing. It's no longer merely about survival or emigration, but about claiming rights, demanding freedom, and naming reality with its true words. This is the silent revolution that terrifies the regime: the revolution of free thought.

"The room is just the same" once lamented a motionless nation. Today, it has become its opposite: a warning to the authorities that the room is no longer under their control.

Youths have started to rearrange the furniture, open the curtains, and let the light in. And when that happens, no matter how much the oppressors try to pretend everything remains in place, the room can never go back to being the same.