Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara (born December 2, 1987) is a Cuban performance artist and dissident, known for his public performances that openly criticize the

Cuban government Cuba is communist and has had a socialist political system since 1961 based on the "one state, one party" principle. Cuba is constitutionally defined as a single-party Marxist–Leninist socialist republic with semi-presidential powers. The pre ...

and its policies. A self-taught artist, Alcántara lives in the El Cerro neighborhood of Havana. Since 2018 Alcántara has been arrested dozens of times for his performances in violation of

Decree 349 Decree 349 is a 2018 Cuban law requiring artists to obtain advance permission for public and private exhibitions and performances. The law was first proposed April 20, 2018 by Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (; bo ...

, a Cuban law requiring artists to obtain advance permission for public and private exhibitions and performances.

Protests and arrests

In 2017, Otero Alcántara was arrested for "being in illicit possession of construction materials" in relation to his work as a cofounder of the ''#00 bienal de la Habana'', an alternative event to the official

Havana Biennial The Bienal de La Habana was a traditional Latin, Caribbean event, originated in Havana, Havana, Cuba, that aims to raise awareness to promote contemporary art and giving priority to Latin Americans, Latin-American and Caribbean artists. The eve ...

. In April 2019, Otero Alcántara was arrested by the Cuban police during his participation in a satellite event of the Havana Biennial. On August 10, he was arrested in Havana during part of his performance ''Drapeau''. In the work, he wore a Cuban flag draped over his shoulders, in defiance of a 2019 law dictating how the flag could be used. On March 1, 2020, Otero Alcántara was arrested in Havana on the charges of defiling patriotic symbols and property damage. At the time of the arrest, was on the way to join a protest at the

Cuban Institute of Radio and Television The Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (; ICRT) was the government agency responsible for the control of radio and television broadcasters in Cuba. On August 24, 2021, the institute ceased to operate and was replaced by the Institute of In ...

against the censorship of a two men kissing on television. In November 2020, Otero Alcántara took part in a hunger strike as part of the San Isidro Movement. He and other protesters were twice detained by police during the protest. On December 3, he was released from prison, but arrested again the same day when he joined another protest. He was released to house arrest the same day. In April 2021, he initiated another hunger strike, gaining widespread attention and global media coverage. In May 2021, State security agents dressed as civilians broke into Otero Alcántara's house and forcibly detained him and the poet Afrika Reina. To justify their assault, agents outside the house yelled, "¡Qué viva la revolución! (May the revolution live!) ¡Qué viva Fidel! (Long live Fidel)" The agents also confiscated some of Otero Alcántara's most recent art work.Jiménez Enoa, Abraham
Why Cuba can't afford to let a Black activist die for demanding basic rights.
Washington Post, May 7, 2021. Later that month, in solidarity with Otero Alcántara, a group of activist Cuban artists working under the name 27N asked the director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Havana to remove their works from public exhibition. On May 21, 2021,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

named Otero Alcantara a

prisoner of conscience A prisoner of conscience (POC) is anyone imprisoned because of their race, sexual orientation, religion, or political views. The term also refers to those who have been imprisoned or persecuted for the nonviolent expression of their conscienti ...

. A few days later a group of prominent international cultural figures, including

Junot Díaz Junot Díaz ( ; born December 31, 1968) is a Dominican American writer, creative writing professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a former fiction editor at '' Boston Review''. Central to Díaz's work is the immigrant experience ...

Edwidge Danticat Edwidge Danticat (; born January 19, 1969) is a Haitian American novelist and short story writer. Her first novel, '' Breath, Eyes, Memory'', was published in 1994 and went on to become an Oprah's Book Club selection. Danticat has since written ...

Julie Mehretu Julie Mehretu (born November 28, 1970) is an Ethiopian American contemporary visual artist, known for her multi-layered paintings of abstracted landscapes on a large scale. Her paintings, drawings, and prints depict the cumulative effects of urba ...

John Akomfrah Sir John Akomfrah (born 4 May 1957) is a Ghanaian-born British artist, writer, film director, screenwriter, theorist and curator of Ghanaian descent, whose "commitment to a radicalism both of politics and of cinematic form finds expression in ...

, and

Carrie Mae Weems Carrie Mae Weems (born April 20, 1953) is an American artist working in text, fabric, audio, digital images and Video installation, installation video, and is best known for her photography. She achieved prominence through her early 1990s photog ...

, issued a public letter to the Cuban president requesting Alcántara's release. On May 31, 2021, the San Isidro Movement confirmed that Otero Alcántara had been released from custody, after being detained in a hospital for over four weeks. On July 11, 2021, he was arrested by Cuban authorities on his way to join a march calling for freedom. Since then, he has been under custody. On May 30 and 31st of 2022, a closed trial was held in the District Court of Marianao in Havana. Although the international press requested access to the trial, the Cuban Government did not reply to requests. At that time, he was facing up to 7 years in prison. In June of 2022, Otero Alcántara was sentenced to 5 years of incarceration to be served at a Maximum Security Prison in Guanajay, located in the province of Artemisa, Cuba. As of November 2024, he continues to serve his sentence.

Awards and recognition

In September 2021, ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' named Otero Alcántara as one of the 100 most influential people in the world on their annual ''Time'' 100 list. In 2022, Otero Alcántara was one of six recipients of the 2022 Claus Impact Award for his performances that addresses the critical conditions that Cuban citizens are facing. The six other recipients include

Ailton Krenak Ailton Krenak (born 1953) is an Indigenous peoples in Brazil, Indigenous writer, philosopher, journalist, environmentalist, and activist of the Krenak people. He became widely known after his protest at the Brazilian Constituent Assembly (1988), ...

, Alain Gomis, Hassan Darsi, María Medrano, and May al-Ibrashy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alcantara, Luis Manuel Otero 1987 births Living people Cuban artists Cuban curators Cuban dissidents Political prisoners in Cuba Cuban hunger strikers