In July 2021 protests erupted as Cubans reached a boiling point of government neglect while in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article reveals my Cuban mother's and my thoughts on the matter as I reminisced on my Havana visit just a few years before. In 2023 Cuba currently faces trial in London over unpaid debt. The future of Cuba is unpromising as it resembles the Special Period of the nineties.