“The problem in Cuba is that there is a dictatorship. And a dictatorship is a dictatorship. There is no soft dictatorship, no right-wing dictatorship, a left-wing dictatorship, a dictatorship is still a dictatorship. And a dictatorship is to decide that everything consider good, is good, and what is bad is bad. And that is decided by a single person, while forgetting that there are a million people who can have their point of view - good, bad, regular... And that it’s exactly the diversity of opinions what generates the evolution.“
“For me, the fear, for example…, the fear is just an ignorance and lack of vision. Because the greatest fear within the human being is the death. And the death is just an unknown path.“
“I am not a politician. I am an artist who discovered, or more likely, who found the function of art that changes the society. And a totalitarian regime, a dictatorial regime has to assume the political responsibility.“
“I don't care if you are a bricklayer. I don't care if you are a farmer. But I want to be an artist and I have to receive a possibility to become an artist. And there we go to the issue of the blackness in Cuban art. There, you’re entering an elitist world, very white, in which a lot of money moves... And without papers… I mean, we are talking about that to enter a gallery or exhibit in Cuba, you have to have a permit, like a card, which makes you artist. In those galleries you don't exist without that card. Within the peak of art, if you have not studied in the San Alejandro academy, you do not have enough quality to try it with me. If you don't know the terms, or you don't know how to create a dossier, you can't talk to me. If you don't have the kind of image that I like, you can't talk to me.”
“Being black in Cuban society is a stigma, it is a mark that you constantly walk with. And you have to make a double effort in everything you do. Unless, you are an athlete. If you are an athlete or a musician, OK, but even if you are a musician… Even being a musician you realize that the Cuban music sector is getting very much white.”
The contemporary Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was born on December 2, 1987, in Havana, or more specifically, in “the Hill” or “El Cerrito,” as this marginalized neighborhood is called. The place of his birth was not, along with his skin color, a good predisposition for a successful life. However, “el negro del Cerrito,” thus “the black guy from the Hill,” as Luis Manuel calls himself, managed to find his place at the top of contemporary Cuban independent art. Originally, he was dedicated to religious art but “moved” to political art. He took inspiration from the Cuban veterans of the Angolan War (1975-1991), to whom he dedicated the exhibition of statues called “The heroes are not a burden” (“Los heroes no pesan,” 2011). This became his first political manifesto. Since his art subjects are not compatible with the Cuban political regime, he has practically no possibility of exhibiting in public spaces. Therefore, he is combining his art with performance since he believes that art can awaken thought in Cuban society, and in the end, even change it. In November 2020, Luis Manuel, along with five other members of the San Isidro Movement, carried out a hunger and thirst strike for freedom of expression and the release of the political prisoner, Denis Solís. State Security violently ended the strike after more than a week.
