Cuban filmmaker Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti proudly reclaims the term "gusano" — historically used by the Castro regime as an insult against those who do not feel attached to the dogmas of what they called the "Revolution" — and in an interview with CiberCuba, he transforms it into a metaphor for personal transformation: "I am a gusano with great honor. I am already a butterfly."
The statement summarizes the ideological evolution of an artist who grew up within the official Cuban cultural system before exiling himself in Miami in 2016, following the censorship of his theatrical adaptation of "The King Is Dying" and a public defamation campaign orchestrated by cultural institutions on the island.
In an interview with journalist Tania Costa, Cremata appears uncomfortable from the very beginning with public exposure. "For me, interviews are a torture. I like people to know what I do and everything I will do. I love for people to be aware of what I'm doing, but I don't find it interesting for them to know who I am," the director confesses.
That discomfort does not prevent him from speaking frankly. Cremata describes himself as a Cuban who defies stereotypes: he doesn't drink coffee—"I drink tea"—he doesn't dance, he doesn't like baseball, and he prefers the solitude of a creator. "I'm a somewhat strange Cuban, quite atypical," he admits.
His distance from national identity goes beyond everyday preferences. "I am not very nationalistic. After I discovered the world, I realized that Cuba is too small," he states.
Graduated in Theater Studies and Dramaturgy from the Instituto Superior de Arte de La Habana and the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión de San Antonio de los Baños, Cremata is the author of a filmography that includes "Nada," "El Premio Flaco," "Chamaco," and "Contigo, Pan y Cebolla." His most internationally recognized work is "Viva Cuba" (2005), co-directed with his mother, actress and choreographer Iraida Malberti, which won over 30 awards, including the Grand Prix Écrans Juniors at the Cannes Film Festival.
The interview also touches on deep wounds. His father, Carlos Cremata Trujillo, an employee of Cubana de Aviación, died in the terrorist attack on flight 455 on October 6, 1976, near Barbados, along with 72 other people. The Cuban regime turned the victims into "martyrs," a narrative that Cremata has publicly questioned.
Since his exile, the filmmaker has not softened his stance. In April 2023, he stated unequivocally: “Whatever time I have left to live, I will dedicate to destroying the Cuban regime.”
The image of the butterfly that Cremata chooses to define himself is not coincidental: it encapsulates in a single metaphor the journey of someone who was labeled an enemy by the Revolution and chose to embrace that label as a starting point towards something different, free, and authentic.
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