Cuban UPS Driver Reacts To First US Paycheck: ‘An Emotion I Can’t Compare’
This viral clip of Cuban immigrant UPS driver Yoel Diaz receiving his first paycheck will make your day. Captioned “First paycheck in AMERICA!!!,” the video shows his gratitude for taking part in the “American dream.”
Instagram account @mimaincuba documents the trials, tribulations, and laughs that come with the Cuban immigrant experience. Diaz and wife Marissa share eye-opening videos, like seeing electric paper towel dispensers in a bathroom for the first time.
The video of Diaz opening his first paycheck went viral
The video of Diaz opening his paycheck from UPS has amassed more than 300,000 likes on the platform, and with good reason. He asks Marissa, “Are you filming?” and is noticeably excited to open his first paycheck in this country. He says, “Look what I’m going to take out of my pocket.”
Entering the car, Diaz opens the check, and immediately shouts “YES!” when he sees the total payment amount. Even when his wife mentions it will be taxed, Diaz replies, “I prefer this than Fidel Castro. Fidel took more, communism took more.”
He continues, “This is my first hourly paycheck that I feel every hour counted. That every hour has an importance in my life.”
As Diaz explained to anyone unfamiliar with his experience, “I know I can work hard for something. This is an emotion that I can’t compare with anything because I never had it in my country.” As he described, “In Cuba that emotion doesn’t exist.”
The caption is just as heart-wrenching. Wife Marissa writes, “There are no words to describe how proud I am of your courage to enter a country and a culture that is not yours.” She adds, “A little bit at a time, with hard work and dedication anything is possible in this country.”
Knowing both sides of the coin and happily living in Phoenix, Arizona, the couple wrote, “This actually is patria y vida.”
He once only had eggs and water in his refrigerator
Meanwhile, Yoel told CBS News he is “grateful” to live in the U.S. and have a refrigerator full of food. In Cuba, he explains his fridge consisted of “water, water, water, five, ten eggs, water.”
Now, opening his first paycheck, he explains the feeling as: “Your head explodes and [you] say, ‘Wow, it’s beautiful.’”
As per the outlet, Diaz once worked as a computer science teacher in Cuba, and made $12 a month. He met Marissa, who is Cuban-American, and he remembers telling her: “We want a future… wherever you go, I go.”
Diaz arrived in the U.S. in 2021 on a K1 visa and started working for UPS in October. His wife told Fox News they are “hoping it opens a door to a permanent position.”
She explained, “For the first time, he has the opportunity to dream,” with Yoel adding, “I can help my family and this is the first step in my new life.”
