The Controversy over Cuban Artist Luis Manuel Otero

By Pedro Pablo Morejón

HAVANA TIMES – Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara is a well-known Cuban dissident artist and founder of the San Isidro Movement, which gained enormous international attention in 2020 and became one of the most important moments in the confrontation between civil society and the Cuban regime. It was a movement that, in some way, formed part of the climate of dissent that ultimately culminated in the massive July 11, 2021, protests.

Throughout all this time, the image people had of Luis Manuel was that of a poor artist from a working-class neighborhood, a man who shared that poverty with his neighbors, a young black man who became one of the main targets of the Cuban dictatorship’s repressive and propaganda apparatus.

He was persecuted, imprisoned, sentenced to five years in prison, and his case received enormous international attention.

But now that he has been released from prison and arrived in Miami, a new controversy has emerged. He arrived visibly heavier and wearing an expensive watch, something that some people find unforgivable and that has sparked a reaction among part of the Cuban exile community.

Some immediately began questioning everything: whether he was really imprisoned, whether he suffered, whether he was tortured. And that is where I believe there is a problem.

Because it seems that some people need the Cuban dissident to remain forever in the same role: that of the victim. They want to see him poor, broken, emaciated… a martyr.

They want the image they have in their heads never to change.

And I ask myself: What would have happened if Luis Manuel had died in prison? Probably many of those questioning him today would be building an altar to him. Because that is how part of the hypocritical, so-called Cuban exile community operates. It seems they want to see you dead; they want to see you turned into a martyr. But when you are alive, when you return, reclaim your life, and begin to be a normal person again, then the doubts begin.

And that is something that, in a certain way, ends up resembling the logic of the dictatorship itself: reducing a person to a symbol instead of seeing them as a human being.

Luis Manuel does not have to emerge from prison physically destroyed to prove that he was imprisoned. Not all political prisoners experience the same conditions. Not all are subjected to the same hardships. Not all emerge physically the same.

Fortunately for him, he was a highly visible figure. His case was closely watched by many people inside and outside Cuba. That does not mean he did not suffer, but it does mean that every story is different.

And as for the watch, I sincerely think the whole discussion is absurd. Luis Manuel is an artist. His works have been sold internationally. He has earned money from his work. The fact that he shows up wearing a watch does not automatically mean there is some contradiction.

There could be many explanations for what lies behind all of this. Clearly, the Cuban State Security apparatus has a long history of campaigns aimed at destroying the reputations of its opponents. But there are also many people who, naively, end up repeating those same narratives and contributing to divisions that benefit only the dictatorship.

And that is one of the great tragedies of Cubans: we have spent decades divided, attacking one another, seeking to destroy anyone who does not fit perfectly into our idea of what is right.

But the reality is that people are not symbols. Luis Manuel Otero is a human being. He can have flaws, shortcomings, and contradictions, just like anyone else.

But one thing does not change: a person does not cease to have been persecuted, imprisoned, or repressed simply because, after leaving prison, they gain weight, own a watch, or try to rebuild their life.

Read more from the diary of Pedro Pablo Morejón here on Havana Times.