EFE/14ymedio, Miami/Havana 17 April 2022 — An exhibition dedicated to the work of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, one of the leaders of the San Isidro Movement, who has been imprisoned in Cuba since last July, will open this week in Miami with the help of various institutions.
“Alcantara, Artist imprisoned in Cuba,” shows the works that the artist’s partner, art curator Claudia Genlui Hidalgo, took out of Cuba last November and brought to Miami.
Otero Alcántara was arrested on July 11, the day that the biggest protests ever broke out against the government and in favor of change in Cuba since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959. Otero is being held in a prison in Guanajay.
The exhibition, which will open its doors to the public from April 22 at The ArtSpace gallery, has been curated by Claudia Genlui Hidalgo and supported by the Bacardí Family Foundation, El Espacio 23 — owned by Cuban-born businessman Jorge Pérez — and I’ve Been Framed.
“His life has become a great performance, an exercise in constant resistance,” says Genlui about Otero Alcántara.
The art curator reported through social networks that last Saturday Otero Alcántara’s relatives visited him in prison and found him “in better spirits,” but “in poor health.”
The Cuban artist continues to have vision problems while the authorities have refused his demand to provide him with specialized medical care, Genlui Hidalgo denounced on Facebook.
Otero Alcántara’s health has deteriorated as a result of several hunger strikes, before and during his imprisonment.
In early April, his relatives reported that Otero Alcántara could be suffering from a severe eye disease after the partial paralysis he suffered during his last hunger strike.
“Everything that happens to Luis is the responsibility of the Cuban government, which is determined to isolate and torture him,” Genlui stressed.
At the beginning of April, the Cuban Prosecutor’s Office informed, after months of waiting, of the sentence request that they will make to the court that that will try Maykel ’Osorbo’ Castillo and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara: ten years for the first and seven for the second.
The information was released by the Osorbo Facebook account; he has been imprisoned since May 18, 2021.
Both artists share the same case, in which they are accused of aggravated contempt, public disorder and instigation to commit a crime for going out on the street, in front of the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement in Old Havana to sing Patria y Vida among the neighbors, on April 4, 2021. Alcántara also has been accused of outrage against national symbols for his work of art titled Drapeau.
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