The Story of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara: A Voice for Cuban Human Rights
In Bergen, Norway, huge red banners have been decorating walls and walls of the city center in recent weeks. In them, a young boy in a black and white image, unknown to most who notice his photo while circulating through the city, makes a gesture that could have been a smile and looks so intently at the camera that it becomes uncomfortable with his inquisitive gaze. It is not just any look, it is the look of someone silenced who has a lot to say. This is Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, a 36-year-old Cuban artist who has been awarded the Rafto Prize for Human Rights. The official ceremony for this award, given each year since 1987 by the foundation of the same name in honor of Professor Thorolf Rafto, took place on Sunday, November 10th. The award highlights human rights defenders, whether individuals or organizations, and focuses the world’s attention on various types of human rights violations.
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara: A Symbol of Resistance
Unfortunately, Luis Manuel has not been able to collect his award. He is currently imprisoned in Cuba and sentenced to five years in prison. He had been intermittently detained before being arrested when he was about to participate in the massive uprising that took place throughout the country on July 11, 2021, as an act of popular protest against the extreme situation affecting the Cuban people. The following year, he was tried in a summary trial and accused and convicted of offenses such as disrespect for national symbols, contempt, and public disorder. These are the charges that the Cuban regime most often fabricates against those who disagree with the government of the island.
But Otero Alcántara is not just another political prisoner in Cuba. With his provocative art, he has been pointing out the situation, not just precarious, but disastrous, in which Cuba finds itself in all areas. He has shown opposition and criticism openly as rarely, if ever, seen in Cuba in recent decades. As a creator and activist, he co-founded the Museum of Dissidence in Cuba, organized the #00Havana Biennial, the country’s first independently organized biennial, and brought together a group of young intellectuals and artists in 2018 around an artistic and social movement of a political nature, the San Isidro Movement. The Cuban government has turned him into one of its main internal enemies and has treated him as such.
The Rafto Prize and International Attention
His work led the Rafto Foundation to announce on September 19th the decision to award him the prize “for his fight for freedom of expression through art in Cuba,” as expressed by Jostein Hole Kobbeltvedt, executive director of the Rafto Foundation since 2016. The Cuban is among the youngest recipients of this award and the third Latin American to receive it. Prior recipients from the continent include Bishop José Raúl Vera López of Mexico in 2010 and Father Melo of Honduras in 2015. With this recognition, the director added, a call is made to the Cuban government to stop persecuting artists and human rights defenders and to demand the release of Otero Alcántara and all political prisoners in Cuba. At the same time, it is hoped that the recognition will lead Norway and other countries to keep the focus on human rights defenders and engage in dialogue with Cuban authorities.
The Impact of the Rafto Prize
A Call for Freedom and Justice
Finally, this weekend of November 9th and 10th, the annual Rafto conference and the official award ceremony took place. Hundreds of people gathered in the auditorium of the University and the National Theater of Bergen. During the three-hour conference on Saturday, intellectuals from various fields specializing in Cuba and human rights debated the country’s situation and political prisoners in an attempt to decipher the Cuban chaos. During Sunday’s ceremony, neither the banners nor Luis Manuel’s voice offstage managed to mask his absence. Far from it, they strengthened it, especially when no one else took the stage to accept the award as an act of protest. Not even Yanelys Núñez Leyva, curator and activist co-founder of the San Isidro Movement, who came on behalf of Otero Alcántara, did so.
“The award was unexpected for him,” Yanelys told me, “it is a recognition that gives him strength, visibility, protection, and hopes to encourage the international community to also look at the situation of the rest of the political prisoners.” Yanelys is his personal friend. She speaks to him on the phone every Tuesday and Thursday. It’s just 10 or 12 minutes that she divides among friends and family. In her opinion, Luis Manuel has become a symbol of the Cuban people’s resistance in an organic and natural way, and this has been possible because his concerns resonate with public opinion, because the community around him shares his same concerns. “In a country of such paranoia, so much distrust, where the social fabric is completely deteriorated, he has opened up and shown that we are all in the same place, with the same concerns. Added to this is his use of joy as a method in a country where apathy has taken hold, not a forced joy, but a genuine one.” All these elements have contributed to Luis Manuel reaching the place he occupies today, and to people recognizing him as an authentic and beloved figure.
The Struggle for Freedom and Expression
Beyond the individual recognition of Luis Manuel, this award represents an international wake-up call regarding the Cuban situation. Today, with so many conflicts in the world to worry about, Norway’s decision to award this distinction to an imprisoned Cuban artist shines a spotlight on a country that has been in the dark for so long, barely seen and seemingly undeserving of attention, living off past glories because it has nothing more to offer. Therefore, when we applaud emotionally in that theater and walk with torches through the streets on this cold and dark November Sunday, we do so for Luis Manuel and all Cuban political prisoners to be liberated, but above all, for Cuba to be free.
A Call to Action for Cuba
Never before has Otero Alcántara so faithfully symbolized the Cubans on the island because all of Cuba has long been a dark cell, and its inhabitants are prisoners of a decadent government that offers only two alternatives: to flee or to submit to the torture that everyday life has become. May the Rafto Prize help shed light on Cuba, to bring to the stage all those millions plunged into darkness, to raise awareness among the international community and among Cubans living in migration. It is time to demystify the Cuban process. We, the migrant Cubans, those of us who make up an itinerant Cuba, have the responsibility to act. Cubans inside, immersed in a constant struggle for survival and in a state of permanent despair, have lost their ability to act.
A Cry for Recognition and Justice
I want to see this award as one that uplifts all those who suffer the harsh daily life: for those caregivers of children and the elderly who must put bread on the table and experience cruel exhaustion every day; for those elderly people who live their old age in loneliness because their children have left in search of a better life; for all those who suffer from the lack of electricity due to the collapse of the electrical system, which is nothing more than a symbol of the deterioration of a government that can no longer even illuminate its inhabitants; for the children who could not attend school for a week and who have no choice but to imagine a future away from Cuba. I want to believe that the Rafto Prize is to make them seen, remembered, valued.
The Unseen War in Cuba
A Silent Battle for Human Rights
In Cuba, there is also a war, an endless one, without armed conflict, one that is diluted among many realities, one in which everyday life has become a torture that has taken hold in the psyche of all its inhabitants and for which in recent years, a million Cubans have been forced to move. Every day in Cuba is a silent battle. No bombs have been needed for cities to witness continuous collapses and the people to end up injured losing all battles. Psychological torture is also war. Deprivation of rights is also war. The usurpation of hope from millions of people whose only crime has been to resist is also war.
In an interview with EL PAÍS on July 11th of this year, when he completed his third year of imprisonment, Otero Alcántara declared, due to the arbitrariness of his sentence and the uncertainty of his future: “This confinement has many ways to end,” and now I find it impossible to separate his destiny from that of Cuba.
Conclusion
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara’s story is not just about one man’s struggle for freedom and expression in Cuba, but a larger narrative of the Cuban people’s fight for human rights and justice. As he continues to be a symbol of resistance, his recognition with the Rafto Prize sheds light on the ongoing challenges faced by political prisoners and activists in Cuba. It is a call to action for the international community to stand in solidarity with those oppressed and to push for a brighter future for Cuba.
FAQ
1. How has Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara been recognized for his work?
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was awarded the Rafto Prize for Human Rights for his fight for freedom of expression through art in Cuba.
2. What is the significance of the Rafto Prize for Cuba?
The Rafto Prize serves as an international wake-up call to shed light on the Cuban situation and to demand the release of political prisoners and the promotion of human rights in the country.