Cubans Grow Weary of 'Creative Resistance': "We Resist So They Can Live"

In a Facebook post, Cuban Angelo Del Castillo captures the profound frustration felt by millions of Cubans towards the official slogan of "creative resistance" championed by Miguel Díaz-Canel. Del Castillo sarcastically lists the many aspects of daily life that require "resistance": "The power goes out: resist. The water stops: resist. There's no gas: resist. No medicine: resist. No transport: resist. No internet: resist. Wages are never enough: resist."

Accompanied by an image of a chaotic electrical panel — complete with rusting meters, exposed wires, and vegetation creeping through the boards — the post serves as a stark reflection of Cuban reality. It sparked hundreds of comments from citizens who are fed up with being asked to celebrate hardship as an achievement.

Del Castillo concludes his post with a question that resonates with many: "After 67 years, if the best proposal is still 'resist,' one has to wonder if the goal was ever to solve problems, or merely to make them a national heritage."

Comments on the post are often even more blunt than the original message. One user remarked, "Creative Resistance because you have to be a magician to resist without water, electricity, money, gas, medicine, or food."

Another pointed out the hypocrisy in the official rhetoric: "The creatives are those telling us to resist while they don't have to. It's outrageous, like my dad used to say."

One commenter was even more direct: "Creative Resistance while the dictatorship lives comfortably, oppressing the people, stealing their dreams and simplest aspirations."

Public Outcry Reflects Growing Exhaustion

Physical exhaustion was also evident in the comments: "Who the hell can resist after 72 hours without electricity, and when it returns for just two hours, the SEN fails again? Unlivable is the only word to describe what Cubans are going through."

Some users turned to dark humor to describe their plight: "We're like an electric stove, pure resistance and of the highest quality, because they have us at full power and we don't short out, we heat up but keep resisting."

The gap between those who demand resistance and those forced to endure it was another focal point of reactions: "Resistance is for those on the ground, and creativity is for those at the top," summarized one commenter.

Others highlighted the repressive nature of the system: "Endure it, applaud it, and last but not least: defend it. And if you think otherwise: shut up or go to jail. The ultimate absurdity, truly."

One person summed it up succinctly: "We resist so they can live."

Crippling Crisis Exposes Flawed System

The post circulates amid a severe crisis. On July 10, the SEN experienced its fourth total blackout of the year, leaving more than 9.6 million people without power. Just two days earlier, the country recorded its largest energy shortfall in history: 2,341 MW, affecting 73% of the population at once.

Díaz-Canel has been promoting the "creative resistance" slogan since at least 2022, reiterating it as an official mantra for years. In March 2026, he even suggested cooking with coal as a positive example of such creativity in the face of power outages lasting up to 15 hours.

However, on June 18, during the Extraordinary Plenary Session of the Communist Party's Central Committee, Díaz-Canel had to concede that "resistance alone is not enough," implicitly acknowledging the model's unsustainability.

A commenter on Del Castillo's post captured it succinctly: "It's not that the best proposal is to resist; it's the only proposal they have to buy time, as always."

And a user concluded with a phrase that perhaps best captures the mood of many Cubans: "I'm just waiting for them to leave so I can get creative."