A Cuban father, 52 years old, agreed to speak before the camera of a foreign YouTuber on the streets of Havana for a desperate reason: he needed help obtaining powdered milk for his three young daughters. However, after sharing the hardships his family faces and criticizing the government, he made another request: to have his face blurred in the video for fear of ending up in prison.
"The only thing I want is for you to help me with some small packets of milk for my family. I have three little girls," said the man during a meeting recorded by content creator BROBA, who documented his stay in Cuba on YouTube .
The father, whose identity was not revealed, explained that he decided to expose himself in front of a camera in hopes of obtaining a food item that has become increasingly difficult to secure even for Cuban children.
According to her account, the milk allocated for her daughters through the rationing system arrives inconsistently.
"I make the recording so that my [daughters] drink milk (...) One month yes and six months no," she stated.
When they can't find milk, she stated that the family resorts to an alternative that is as precarious as it is concerning.
"And if there's no milk, she gives him water with sugar," she said.
The man also stated that this type of diet ultimately harms the young girls: "That’s what gives the girls parasites."
He also confessed that he would like to leave Cuba, but it was at the end of the conversation that he had one of the most shocking moments of the video.
After discussing his family's hardships and the country's situation, he insisted that the YouTuber cover his face before publishing the images.
"Erase my face (...) because they give me five years just like they have to everyone else here in Cuba," he pleaded.
He explained the fear he felt for having expressed his opinions publicly: "In another country in the world, you can talk about anyone, but here you can't because it's a communist country."
BROBA respected his request. The man's face is hidden in the video, although his voice and testimony remain.
The creator later explained to his followers that the Cuban's concern persisted even after the camera was turned off.
"He insisted a lot after I stopped the recording that I should remove his face, because he could get into a lot of trouble just for appearing in the video and talking about the government," BROBA recounted.
The YouTuber summed up what he had just witnessed with a phrase: "There is no freedom of expression here."
This father's concern about getting milk for his three daughters occurs amid a shortage that the Cuban government itself has acknowledged.
In June, the Minister of Food Industry, Alberto López Díaz, admitted that more than 100,000 Cuban children were affected by the lack of their daily milk supply.
Official plans aimed to ensure powdered milk for approximately 331,000 children and fluid milk for another 200,000, but authorities acknowledged difficulties in meeting these deliveries.
For many families, buying it outside the state system is not a viable alternative either.
In Matanzas, a bag of powdered milk sold for 6,500 pesos, an exorbitant price for many Cuban households whose income must also cover food, medicine, transportation, and other basic products.
The man's fear of revealing his face adds another dimension to his testimony.
Independent organizations have reported for years instances of detentions, interrogations, threats, and legal proceedings against Cubans for expressing opinions contrary to the government, both in the streets and on social media.
The fear of speaking in front of a camera surfaced more than once during the BROBA tour.
Another Cuban interviewed in front of the Capitol also asked the YouTuber to hide his face before questioning the government's priorities.
"They're tearing down a building here and constructing a hotel, and they don't give anything to the Cubans," he denounced.
He then summarized his perception of the crisis in few words: "There is hunger in this country, a lot of hunger."
The video also shows other challenges that BROBA encountered from its first hours in Havana.
A taxi driver assured him that getting gasoline could involve waiting in line for up to eight hours, while the amount of fuel available was, according to his account, limited to between 20 and 40 liters per buyer.
The YouTuber was also unable to initially obtain a SIM card from ETECSA because the office he went to was closed due to a blackout. Without a connection and in need of Cuban pesos, he turned to the informal market to exchange his dollars.
However, among all the scenes he encountered during his first tour of the capital, the conversation with the father of three girls encapsulated two issues that extend far beyond the challenges faced by a foreign visitor navigating Cuba.
The man stood in front of a camera because he needed milk to feed his daughters.
Later, he requested that his face be erased because he was afraid of being imprisoned for having spoken out.
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