The Cuban community in Spain growing faster than ever. While Donald Trump toughens its pressure on Cuba and maintains a hostile discourse towards migration, Spain opens avenues of regularization for people in uncertain situations. The data of the INE show the jump: from 130,747 residents in 2016 to about 287,500 Cubans settled in Spain according to the first estimates at the beginning of 2026. Almost the doble in a decade. The exodus increased from the summer of 2021when the humanitarian crisis and repression on the island worsened.
Osmany Suareza Cuban university professor, left the island at that time, after publishing a critical text about higher education and corruption. “I was sanctioned with separation from the university and from the position of professor,” he explains to EL PERIÓDICO. Threats also came: “They accused me of relations with the CIA and be a threat to the Cuban Revolution.”
Double asphyxiation
The main destination of the Cuban diaspora has been, for many decades, the neighboring coast of Miami. It is estimated that there are more than 1.8 million people born in Cuba who live outside the country (the latest official UN figure is from 2024). So, USA concentrated more than 74% of the diaspora and Spain11.5% (three times more than the next destination, Mexico).
But although it is too early for the statistics to reflect it, the return of Donald Trump to the White House has made many Cubans think twice before going to the United States, and those who are already in Europe feel that they took the safest alternative.
The pressure is noticeable in the Spanish consulates. In response, Spain has expanded appointments for legalization of documents in Cuba, from 1,000 to 1,350 weekly. The measure comes while thousands of Cubans are waiting for residency, regularization or nationality through the Democratic Memory Lawknown as Grandchildren Law. The Spanish Government has also announced a new diplomatic headquarters in Camaguey, to decongest Havana and provide service to the east of the country, avoiding long trips across the island at a particularly critical time due to problems accessing fuel.
Trump’s return to a harder line toward Havana adds pressure to an exhausted society. Suárez speaks of a double asphyxiation: within, a State that controls daily life; outside, an American policy that narrows the margin of survival. “External pressure is now added to internal pressure,” he summarizes.
For Suárez, the US embargo aggravates the crisis, but cannot serve as a permanent excuse. “That you have had an economic embargo for 60 years does not justify a policy of constant harassment and harassment against your population,” he says. His diagnosis is clear: “Everything that has to do with the island is subordinated to the extremes of power: between Castroism and Trumpism“.
Those who leave do not separate themselves from Cuba either. “We Cubans who are abroad have to support our parents. If we don’t send the remittance, if we don’t send food, these people end up dying.“, he explains. That is why he describes many residents on the island as “citizens held hostage.”
Spain as a possible destination
Claudia Calvino was a recognized independent film producer in Cuba, always on the edge of censorship, but the film it produced “Santa and Andrew”it was a definitive blow. It was never screened on the island and put them under constant focus. “The film put the political police in the basement of our apartment all day,” he explains to this newspaper. But it was her husband, a journalist, who was kicked out first.
“I left for love and dignity“, resume. “If I live in a space where the person I love and the father of my child cannot exist, or where my own work cannot exist, I too will be thrown out.“he adds. They managed to leave for Spain, with their son, just a baby, and they had to start again from the bottom.”They asked me if I knew how to do Excel. And of course, I had produced fifteen films“, he says. But, with patience, they built their professional and family lives again.
He had to grieve, but is grateful for the stability. “When you come from Cuba, where education and health are practically deade, knowing that you can go to the doctor and they will treat your child at two in the morning is incredible,” says Calviño, who reflects on the migrant’s grief: “I’ve forgotten rabia a little with Cuba and now it’s becoming more and more to me pain”he says, aware that those who were left trapped there.
Demonstration in Madrid in defense of human rights in Cuba / Victor Lerena / EFE
Political change, non-violence
Calviño views Trump’s hardening with rejection, but admits a contradiction: any possibility of change in Cuba awakens hope. “As much as Trump provokes disgust, fear and terror in me, there is something about the idea that there can be a change that gives me hope.” he says. The line is clear: “I would not support an invasion in any way. I’m absolutely against all violence“.
In Cuba, he affirms, many people want profound political change. But that does not mean supporting a warlike solution, a space that, both agree, is sometimes difficult to understand. Calviño misses an alternative. “I would like there to be a Cuban political leader with progressive thinking, concerned about people and human rights“, he affirms. But he believes that the system has blocked any attempt at renewal and when someone has begun to stand out, they have “annihilated” him.
Suárez agrees. He views initiatives such as those of the international flotilla announced in support of the Cuban people with skepticism, saying that it arrives late and replaces royal attention with political staging. “This humanitarian crisis has been occurring in Cuba for many years without receiving real attention.“, he states. “This island can’t stand one more symbolic dispute“, he exasperates. The departure continues. Cuba loses population. The US hardens positions, discourse and policies. And Spain gains weight as a destination.
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