MIAMI — In 2018, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, better known as “LuisMa,” stood up against government censorship in Cuba.
He co-founded The San Isidro Movement in Havana, and he helped lead the courageous group of artists, writers, and academics to protest Decree 349, a law that required state approval for all artistic expression.
The performance artist used the Cuban flag and was arrested on July 11, 2021. Cuban prosecutors filed charges of public disorder, contempt, and insulting national symbols. In 2022, he was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.
“I went on more than five hunger strikes ... I am not going to offer a justification because I have nothing to justify,” the 38-year-old exiled dissident said on Friday in downtown Miami.
The Cuban government freed him from the maximum-security Guanajay prison on July 7. He was ordered to leave the island and arrived at Miami International Airport on July 18 on a humanitarian parole.
He was forced to leave his son behind on the island.
“It’s literally like being in a coma and then waking up,” he said.
Some of the art that he created while in prison in Cuba was framed and on display on Friday at the Freedom Tower. His installation was at the Freedom Hall. The exhibit, he said, was the reward.
“They are the impression of a suffering, of a state of mind,” he said about his artwork.
He said he hopes the communist regime will fall and Cubans will learn what it’s like to be free.
The Museum of Art and Design, or MOAD, at Miami Dade College presented “Luis Manuel Otero Alcántra: nos encontramos,” the exhibit.
“His journey of resilience and determination echoes in the halls of the Freedom Tower’s history,” Amy Galpin, MOAD’s executive director and chief curator, said in a statement.
Ernesto Fundora, the director of the “Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara: Estamos conectados,” a documentary, was at the opening from 6 to 10 p.m. on Friday at 600 Biscayne Boulevard.
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