Cuban filmmaker Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti has harshly criticized the Cuban regime's lack of transparency regarding the death of his daughter, Yésica Cremata Martínez, who passed away at the age of 19 in January 2022 under circumstances the family believes remain unexplained. In an interview with Tania Costa for CiberCuba, Cremata expressed his frustration with a powerful statement: “If the living don’t matter in Cuba, imagine the dead.”
According to the director, his daughter appeared healthy and was at her boyfriend's house when she died. “She was 19 years old and not sick,” Cremata emphasized, underscoring the perplexity of her loss due to the lack of official answers.
When seeking information, Cremata encountered a wall of institutional silence upon contacting Cuba’s Legal Medicine. “They wouldn’t give me the doctor’s name or anyone’s. All they told me was that it was atypical pneumonia,” he stated.
The filmmaker found this explanation dubious, suspecting it was a blanket term used by Cuban authorities during and after the pandemic to avoid officially recording COVID-19 cases. “My daughter wasn’t sick with COVID; it was in the post-COVID years,” he clarified, although he admitted having no evidence to suggest her death was intentional.
Previously, Cremata revealed that authorities denied the family permission to cremate the body and failed to provide a pathological certificate. Additionally, the official version changed; initially, he was told the cause was a heart attack, later altered to “atypical pneumonia.” No autopsy report or public statement from the Ministry of Public Health has clarified the incident.
The death of Yésica Cremata marked a turning point in her father’s life. In March 2023, he confessed that his life “lost meaning” after her passing, and a month later, he declared, “Whatever life I have left, I will dedicate to dismantling the Cuban regime.”
This tragedy adds to another unresolved event from his childhood: his father, Carlos Alberto Cremata, was part of the crew on Cubana de Aviación Flight 455, shot down on October 6, 1976, off the coast of Barbados, killing all 73 onboard. The victims are officially referred to in Cuba as “the martyrs of Barbados.” Cremata has publicly questioned the official account of the attack's authorship.
Since relocating to Miami in 2016 following his ostracism by the regime due to a theatrical production perceived as offensive to Fidel Castro, the filmmaker has adopted an increasingly combative stance against the Cuban government. His work 'SOS Cuba,' premiered in September 2022, served as his first public homage to his daughter, Yésica Cremata.
These two unresolved family tragedies—the death of his father in 1976 and his daughter in 2022—shape Cremata’s view of the Cuban state and its silence toward those who do not fit the official narrative.
Understanding Juan Carlos Cremata's Criticisms of the Cuban Regime
Why does Juan Carlos Cremata criticize the Cuban government?
Juan Carlos Cremata criticizes the Cuban government due to their lack of transparency and failure to provide satisfactory explanations regarding the deaths of his daughter and his father, which he views as part of a broader pattern of institutional silence and disregard.
What were the circumstances of Yésica Cremata's death?
Yésica Cremata, who was 19 and reportedly healthy, died at her boyfriend's house. The official explanation given was "atypical pneumonia," a diagnosis Cremata finds suspicious given its use during the COVID-19 pandemic.
How has Juan Carlos Cremata responded to these tragedies?
Cremata has vowed to dedicate his remaining life to opposing the Cuban regime, expressing his sorrow and anger through public statements and his work, such as the film 'SOS Cuba' in honor of his daughter.