The Cuban artist and activist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who’s being held in jail in Cuba, has appealed “to individuals of conscience around the globe to help our wrestle to liberate ourselves and our nation” in an article printed within the Miami Herald newspaper.
“Right now each younger Cuban is a political prisoner. A censored artist. An exile inside and outdoors Cuba. Even if you happen to’re an confederate of the system, you’ll inevitably be crushed just like the others, as a result of to be younger is to be daring and reckless, desirous to carry change to the world. It means combating for love, goals and utopia,” he writes.
Alcántara is detained in Guanajay, a maximum-security penitentiary southwest of Havana. The publication of his remark piece marks two years since he was arrested when anti-government protests swept the nation. “I’m an artist and a political prisoner in Cuba. I used to be arrested on July 11, 2021, on my method to a protest during which 1000’s of my compatriots rose up throughout the island to demand freedom.”
Alcántara was sentenced on 24 June final yr. “Final yr, I used to be sentenced to 5 years in jail on prices of contempt and insult to nationwide symbols, as a result of I used the Cuban flag in a efficiency in August 2019. That is how the Cuban authorities views my artwork,” he writes.
As one of many founders of the San Isidro motion, Alcántara helped carry injustices towards artists by the Cuban authorities to the worldwide stage. US officers who’ve known as for Alcántara’s launch embody Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the previous US ambassador to Peru, Brian A. Nichols. In 2021, Alcántara was named an “icon” by Time journal.
Final yr, his colleague, the US-based fellow artist and activist Coco Fusco advised The Artwork Newspaper that his well being was deteriorating in jail. “I’ve misplaced weight due to the shortage of meals and poor high quality of meals. I’m typically afraid to eat as a result of the meals appears rotten,” Alcántara writes. “Violence is fixed. Just one’s physique modifications. Your hair falls out and your face ages prematurely from ache, frustration and unhappiness. Your folks go away the nation. Lovers’ caresses are lengthy gone. The soundscape right here is at all times the identical. All you hear is the murmur of dying slowly approaching.”
On the time of writing, the Cuban embassy in London had not responded to a request for remark.
