Cuba AMP

14/07/2022

An astonishingly well researched and fantastically written piece by about the last year of Cuban history. Best read about Cuba in a long time.

Link in stories and here: https://www.e-flux.com/notes/478920/cuba-s-11j-one-year-later

11/07/2022

One year ago today the Cuban people took to the streets to demand freedom and democracy after 63 years of a communist dictatorship.

The Cuban regime unleashed terror on the peaceful protestors and today there continue to be over 800 political prisoners on the island.

29/06/2022

winner for the song was sentenced to 9 years in prison. Internationally renowned artist and one of 100 Most Influential People of 2021 .oteroalcantara was sentenced to 5 years in prison.

Here is the article about their sentencing.

29/06/2022

On Friday June 24 the Cuban regime convicted and sentenced .oteroalcantara to 5 years in prison for “insulting national symbols” for using the Cuban flag in his work.

In an article by .official , explains:

“The worst thing about the laws in Cuba is that they are conceived by those in power to be used in a discretionary manner,” says Julio Llopiz Casal, a Cuban artist involved in the island’s opposition movement. “The national symbols law is not designed to regulate the use of the Cuban flag, for example, but rather to have an argument to criminally prosecute someone like Luis Manuel, because he was someone who would surely use his artistic work to protest the fact that those in power use the law as emotional blackmail with criminal consequences.”

According to the Associated Press, the Cuban government said it was “merely applying the law as it would to anyone”.

From the article: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/06/27/luis-manuel-otero-alcantara-sentenced

10/06/2022

23-year-old Andy Dunier García Lorenzo was sentenced to 4 years in prison for participating in the antigovernment protests on the island on July 11, 2021. After an appeal for his release filed by his family, on May 31, 2022 Andy was transferred to a forced labor camp where he will serve his 4-year sentence.

06/06/2022

LOS ANGELES: Today, June 6, 2022 is the opening of the exhibition “No nos sirve de nada el miedo” – “Fear is of no use to us” – curated by Cuban activists Claudia Genlui and Ana Olema

“The exhibition is a dialogue of the artivism (art + activism), denunciation, documentation, and memory. […] Featured Venezuelan artists include Muu Blanco, Andrés Michelena and Victor Alfonzo Navarro López. The Cuban artists include Aryam Rodríguez, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara (who is currently in prison in Cuba), Nelson Jalil, Sandra Ramos, Sandra Ceballos, Ángel Delgado, Yulier P., Alejandro Ulloa, David D'Omni, Ana Olema and the poet Katherine Bisquet whose poem inspired the title of this exhibition […] Fear is of no use to us just as silence has been of no use to us.”

02/06/2022

The trials for and .oteroalcantara are over. A final verdict and sentence could take up to 14 days to be announced.

Maykel and Luis have been unjustly imprisoned since last year. Anything else besides their immediate release is unacceptable.

This music video is a song by “De qué me van a hablar de mi” featuring

01/06/2022

A post on Facebook by after the trials against .oteroalcantara and today, May 31, 2022.

31/05/2022

‘s closing statement at the trial against him and .oteroalcantara this afternoon.

31/05/2022

Yesterday and today the Cuban regime carried out trials against .oteroalcantara and who have both been imprisoned since last year without a trial.

At the start of the trial it was stated that they weren’t being judged as “political prisoners” as well as the fact that they are not artists. In the eyes of the Cuban dictatorship, these two artists and founding members of , are a threat to their existence.

Luis and Maykel have inspired generations of Cubans from all walks of life to come together to demand freedom, to build the country that they dream of - with no more political prisoners nor exiles - as well as encourage a peaceful transition to democracy.

The trials have now concluded and the verdicts are yet to be announced.

24/05/2022

.oteroalcantara ‘s first public statement since July 11, 2021.

24/05/2022

.oteroalcantara ‘s family was informed today, May 23, 2022 that his trial will take place next week on May 30th and 31st, 2022.

The second slide is from ArtForum’s article on August 13, 2019 titled: “Cuban Artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara Arrested Over Performance With Cuban Flag”

https://www.artforum.com/news/cuban-artist-manuel-otero-alcantara-arrested-over-performance-with-cuban-flag-80486 #

24/05/2022

.oteroalcantara ‘s first statement since July 11, 2022.

13/05/2022

13/05/2022

Yoandi Montiel (El Gato de Cuba) has already been sentenced to 2 years. The Cuban government is now reevaluating his verdict to try to sentence him for more time. #

01/04/2022

via .hh Brenda has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for allegedly throwing stones on July 11th. Brenda is a transwoman. We point out her identity because this will subject her to other acts of violence within the Cuban prison system.

25/01/2022

MIAMI: tomorrow Tuesday, January 25, at 10pm at the Freedom Tower in Downtown Miami, we will be holding a vigil for .oteroalcantara - who is on the sixth day of a hunger and thirst strike - along with all political prisoners on the island. Please join us. Post from and below.

To the streets for Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and for all political prisoners

Luis is dying in jail. Enough already! The hunger and thirst strike pushes his body to the brink and at the mercy of the cowardly dictatorship.

Other dignified Cubans are also on a hunger strike, as it is the only way to claim freedom that should never have been denied to them in the first place: Chadrian Vila Sequin, Cruz García Domínguez, Yosvany Rossel García, William Manuel Leyva. Today it is these names, while yesterday it was Andy Lorenzo, Randy Arteaga, Félix Navarro, or Maykel Castillo.

They all continue to be imprisoned. Thirty-six minors are being subjected to shameful legal proceedings, some to torture. Mothers separated from their children, broken families, all being threatened are helpless under a power that does not listen, that does not yield.

In the midst of so much cruelty, we call once again to take over public spaces. We will do it from where we are, Miami, but everyone can do it from wherever they are. We have shouted, sent letters, knocked on a thousand doors, but the Cuban State prefers violence. Violence is their one and only way. So we return to the streets, to claim together the freedom that has to come once and for all. With the hope that at least our energy reaches Luis Manuel and all our brothers in danger.

Dressed in white, with whatever posters you are able to bring that show the faces of the prisoners, with candles, flowers - with anything you think is able to shine a ray of light, strength, and encouragement. We will be there waiting for you.

Freedom and Life for Cuba! Homeland and Life! Patria y Vida!

19/01/2022

Instagram post by on January 18 with an update re: artist .oteroalcantara who has been in prison for participating in the protests on July 11, 2021.

07/01/2022

This past December, before starting a 24 hunger strike for the liberation of her son, Bárbara Farrat Guillen said in a Facebook Live: “Today I declare myself an activist because this government destroys families. It doesn’t believe in its people.” 

Bárbara is the mother of Jonathan Torres Farrat (17 years old), one of the underage children who has been in prison since August 13, 2020 as a consequence of going to the protests on July 11th. He has also been refused access to medicine for a medical condition he has since the day of his detention. 

Bárbara has been continually harassed by State Security for being one of the most vocal family members of the imprisoned from on social media. 

25/12/2021

25/12/2021

“My Cuba cries tears of pain. There will be no Christmas for many families and we will not have a happy end to the year. We will not be complicit in burying our own alive. […] Freedom for all political prisoners and those from July 11.” - Irma Rabelo Aragón

25/12/2021

via .hh If you have a family member or friend who is a political prisoner after the popular uprising on July 11, if you are not indifferent to the pain of hundreds of broken families, if you want to join the denunciations. We invite you to put this photo on your profile or story with the hashtag

25/12/2021

From the series “Payasos” by .oteroalcantara

“In the Valley only sparrows are free”

An artist insists on receiving drawing materials at the Guanajay Maximum Security Prison. His name is Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. After much insistence, he gets the meager allowance of a notebook and two crayons per visit. The guards are stunned by the joy with which he receives these items. They are treasures. But it is not enough for the artist and he begins to flatten and sew cigar boxes together in order to continue to draw. Anything that he can get his hands on works.

Clowns begin to emerge. They are portraits. Almost self portraits. Combining all the colors that he has been able to acquire, he shapes a gallery of emotions with minimal variations where human nature is recreated - the most basic and visceral that accompanies us all. Luis is stubborn. We know that. Without being able to leave, only seeing the sun once a day, looking to the sky through a small window, he connects us with his and our essential needs, with that which makes us laugh, cry, wonder, doubt, feel fear, or have desires. How do you keep feeling those desires inside a jail cell?

Some of the drawings have short phrases, such as votive offerings. Some recall previous experiences from his life: “In the Valley only sparrows are free,” one says, referring to March 2020 when he was imprisoned for 14 days in Valle Grande (Grand Valley) prison. Between the two prisons, little more than a year has passed and the country has changed. Luis knows it. His clowns are the melancholic but courageous face of a country for which change is costing lives. The clowns are the face of a painful and great labor of which we are all a part.

Luis Manuel Otero has been in prison for more than five months. While imprisoned, he has become one of the 100 Most Influential People of the Year according to Time Magazine. Throughout this time, art has been what has kept him company. For Luis, art is neither an altar nor a pedestal, just like the homeland. His clowns are portraits of a homeland today that is drowning, that is screaming, and that still manages to transmit hope.

22/11/2021

July 11 marked a before and after in the history of Cuba. Thousands of people took to the streets to exercise the right to freedom of expression. Despite the peaceful nature of the protests, the response of the Cuban authorities was violent and unleashed a wave of repression over the people. Many Cuban families have been subjected to the imprisonment of their loved ones, summary judgments, and threats.

Hundreds of people are currently in prison without a clear understanding of what will be the events to come. The testimonies of the few who have been released are harrowing, as are the testimonies of the others desperately seeking news about their missing children. The global pandemic, as well as the crisis of shortages in the country, exacerbates the situation. If it is difficult for everyone, it is much more so for the prisoners and their families.

, in alliance with Cuban civil society organizations and activists, has created the (where you fall, I raise you up) Help Network in support of the families of those arrested as a result of July 11. We are driven by solidarity and empathy. Its objective is to contribute to the expenses to cover the needs of the detainees.

The funds raised, which can be in cash or products, are donated by friends, family, acquaintances, and anyone who voluntarily decides to do their bit. All donations will be registered and documented so that both the donor and the beneficiary are duly informed if they so wish. We want transparency to be one of our fundamental principles.

Above all we are human, and as the rapper says, “where you fall, I raise you up.” That is what makes us one family. Let us not allow the Cuban State to also monopolize solidarity. We can and need to organize amongst ourselves and function for the good of all.

Anyone who needs help can write privately on Facebook to and members of the MSI (or in English to ), to discuss the case and agree on the help they need. The same goes for people who wish to collaborate with donations.

We are connected!!!

22/11/2021

Translation of activist Facebook post re: (swipe for original) from November 21.

22/11/2021

“Rejection / Repudiation” “An act of repudiation is work. An act of rejection is honesty.”

22/11/2021

On November 15th was prevented from leaving her home to march in the protest organized by the civic organization .archipielago She was met with what is known as in Cuba as an “acto de repudio” - act of repudiation, or a public shaming. These violent, aggressive demonstrations organized by the government are frequently directed towards activists on the island and have happened since the beginning of the dictatorship in 1959. The march was prevented from happening due to scenes like this in front of the homes of all the organizers/leaders of .archipielago

22/11/2021

On November 15th was prevented from leaving her home to march in the protest organized by the civic organization .archipielago She was met with what is known as in Cuba as an “acto de repudio” - act of repudiation, or a public shaming. These violent, aggressive demonstrations are no strangers to activists on the island and have happened since the beginning of the dictatorship in 1959.

19/11/2021

FB post about state of health in prison in Cuba