MIAMI \u2014 In 2018, Luis Manuel Otero Alc\u00e1ntara, better known as \u201cLuisMa,\u201d stood up against government censorship in Cuba. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cI went on more than five hunger strikes … I am not going to offer a justification because I have nothing to justify,\u201d the 38-year-old exiled dissident said on Friday in downtown Miami. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He was forced to leave his son behind on the island. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s literally like being in a coma and then waking up,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey are the impression of a suffering, of a state of mind,\u201d he said about his artwork. <\/p>\n
He said he hopes the communist regime will fall and Cubans will learn what it\u2019s like to be free. <\/p>\n
The Museum of Art and Design, or MOAD, at Miami Dade College presented \u201cLuis Manuel Otero Alc\u00e1ntra: nos encontramos,\u201d the exhibit. <\/p>\n
\u201cHis journey of resilience and determination echoes in the halls of the Freedom Tower\u2019s history,\u201d Amy Galpin, MOAD\u2019s executive director and chief curator, said in a statement<\/a>. <\/p>\n