Photo: Mathias Buela | The country
Text: Cuba News 360 Writing
A neighborhood of migrant Cubans in Uruguay has been formed in five years, where around 60 families already live. Although for many of them their final destination was not this, but to reach the United States, they have settled in the town of San José de Carrasco Norte, 26 kilometers from the capital Montevideo.
In a peripheral zone of the City of the Coast, in the department of Canelones, Cubans from almost all the provinces of the Island live and there they have built almost four blocks of houses.
A local media report The countryindicate that after the arrival of the first Cubans, they have built a house next to the other, until forming what is now known as “the neighborhood of the Cubans”.
This same text collects testimonies from these migrants, accompanied by images of their houses built by themselves, some of wood and others of blocks.
Although the report only mentions names, there is a common point in almost all the statements, and it is the need to leave Cuba, despite the fact that they had “a beautiful, large, comfortable house here. But if I can’t access basic things, what good is it for me?” says Silvia, the first Cuban to come to this neighborhood.
Before arriving in that town, no one had any idea of the existence of that place. In this sense, one of the interviewees said: “We were going to make the crossing here, because it was cheaper. But our final destination was the United States. When I arrived and saw it, I told my husband: ‘We are staying and bringing the children.’ And I’m not going to move from here, except to go to Cuba to visit”.
“That area was full of thugs. Cubans are hard workers, good people, they cleaned everything, you don’t know what this was. The pity is that there are people from outside who keep coming here to throw garbage. But they don’t, they take care of it”, confesses, for his part, Christian, a Uruguayan taxi driver who has lived in Ciudad de la Costa for more than 30 years.
The report also reflects data from the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM), confirming that in the last five years fluctuations in the migratory movements of Cubans in Uruguay are evident, but 2019 continues to be the year with the highest flow of migrants from the island, where about 12,500 Cubans stayed to live.
Due to mobility restrictions and limited access to livelihoods due to COVID-19, in 2020 and 2021, there was a drop in Cuban movements. In fact, more people left than entered. But at the end of November of last year, there was a recovery of migratory flows prior to the pandemic and now more Cubans stay in Uruguay than leave.
Data from several migratory organizations confirm that the Cuban population that arrives in this country continues to follow the Guyana-Brazil route and the majority enters through Rivera.