Cuba: Prominent Figures Urge End to Repression of Artists
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, an artist who has been an outspoken critic of repression in Cuba, has remained in prison after being arrested during a peaceful demonstration. © REUTERS / Alexandre Meneghini
(London | New York, NY, December 8, 2021) – The Cuban government should immediately stop its abuses against Cuban artists, over 300 prominent figures from the art world said today in a statement co-signed by PEN International, the Artists at Risk Connection of PEN America, and Human Rights Watch. The Cuban government should respect freedom of expression, release arbitrarily detained artists, drop abusive criminal charges, and allow those in exile to return to their country, the arts figures and human rights groups said.
“The level of injustice and repression the Cuban government is imposing on its own people is reaching ever higher levels,” said Tania Bruguera, a performance artist. “The government not only exercises constant censorship over the artists, but in its actions to prevent and criminalize peaceful protest and dissent, now it has made the entire people of Cuba enemy of the state. As an artist and as a Cuban, I am very scared for the future of my country.”
The artists who signed the statement include world-renowned figures such as Meryl Streep, Paul Auster, Orhan Pamuk, Elena Poniatowska, Isabel Allende, J. Jules Feiffer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Khaled Hosseini, as well as notable Cuban artists, including Tania Bruguera, Coco Fusco, and Hamlet Lavastida.
Independent Cuban artists have become a prominent voice criticizing the lack of basic freedoms and human rights in Cuba. The artists, including rappers, writers, actors, and painters who have spearheaded the “San Isidro,” “27N,” and “Archipelago” movements have organized mass demonstrations and used the increased access to the internet in the country to draw global attention to the rampant abuses under the Cuban regime. Some of them also wrote and performed in “Motherland and Life” (Patria y Vida), a viral song and protest anthem criticizing the repression in the country that was recently awarded the Latin Grammy for Song of the Year.
The Cuban government has committed systematic abuses against dozens of independent artists, including arbitrary detention and abusive restrictions on movements and communications, such as house arrests and surveillance. Several of the artists – including Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo, also known as “Osorbo,” who performed in “Motherland and Life” – remain in pre-trial detention and face unfair or groundless criminal charges. Many others remain subject to arbitrary prosecutions or are forced to stay in exile without being able to return to their homeland or show their art in Cuba. At least 50 artists have been under house arrest, imprisoned, or under investigation.
Many Cubans chanted “Motherland and Life” as they took the streets across the country in the July 11, 2021, landmark demonstrations protesting longstanding restrictions on rights, scarcity of food and medicines, and the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The government engaged in arbitrary detention, ill treatment of detainees, and abuse-ridden criminal prosecutions against the demonstrators and stated that singing “Motherland and Life” could be considered a crime.
The “Archipelago” movement, led by actor and playwright Yunior García, organized a new round of protests for November 15, 2021. The Cuban government effectively suppressed the demonstrations by massively deploying security forces to arrest any protesters and encircle the homes of prominent dissidents and protest organizers, forcing them to stay home.
In the statement released on December 8, signatories call on the Cuban government to respect the fundamental role that art and artists play in society, and immediately stop harassing artists for engaging in political and social critiques of the regime while exercising their right to creative expression.
“Throwing artists in jail or exiling them from the country forever – in response to their art, words and ideas – is abusive and inhumane,” the art world figures said.
“We, artists from around the world, stand in solidarity with our colleagues in Cuba," said Elena Poniatowska, a writer. “As a journalist and writer, I believe in denouncing and opposing governments. I believe that if an intellectual, writer, or artist stands up against a government, he or she is doing an indispensable task. It is not surprising that some want to silence us when we bear witness to the voices, beliefs, and experiences of those who would otherwise go unheard. They are afraid of the truth because, once it is revealed, it can no longer be hidden.”
List of signatories:
Jane Aaron
Héctor Abad Faciolince
José Luis Acevedo Daza
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Ben Andoni
Folu Agoi
Ayad Akhtar
Shahidul Alam
José Antonio Albertini
Carlos Alberto Montaner
Masih Alinejad
Isabel Allende
Diane Alméras
Angélica Altuzar Constantino
Ileana Álvarez González
Asieh Amini
Carlos Aníbal Alonso
Kwame Anthony Appiah
Marie Arana
Homero Aridjis
Salman Asif
Reza Aslan
Jessica Atal
Fidaa Ataya
Paul Auster
Nadezda Azhgikhina
Asiel Babastro
Badiucao
Alec Baldwin
Jürgen Banscherus
Peter Barbey
Lee Bellavance Diamond
Gioconda Belli
Carlos Betancourt
Katherine Bisquet
Erling Borgen
Beatriz Bracher
Luis Brandoni
Nick Brandt
Marta Breen
Mogos Brhane
Roberto Briones
Roberto Brodsky
Tania Bruguera
Ahmed Burić
Romana Cacchioli
Lydia Cacho
Jennine Capó Crucet
Adriana Carranca
Jorge Castañeda
Iliana Cepero
Francisco Céspedes
Baltasar Cevc
Helena Chávez Mac Gregor
Suhyun Choi
Sandra Cisneros
Jorge Encinas Cladera
Jennifer Clement
Isabel Coixet
Sarah Cooper
Anton Corbijn
Armando Correa
Jeff Cowen
Ricardo Cravo Albin
Luis de la Paz
María del Pilar Clemente
Fanny del Río
Enkel Demi
Jeanne Demuth
Denise Desautels
Ernesto Díaz Rodríguez
Reinier Díaz Vega
Nelson Dino
Ana Dipp
Jan J. Dominique
Theophilus Donoghue
Rita Dove
Christopher Durang
Gregorio Duvivier
Jennifer Egan
Kai Eide
Álvaro Enrigue
Louise Erdrich
María Eugenia Ayala
Lena Falkenhagen
Jules Feiffer
David Francis
Julia Franck
Jonathan Franzen
Julia Fullerton-Batten
Coco Fusco
Inga Gaile
Angye Gaona
Yunior García Aguilera
Ivette García González
Dominique Gaucher
Sylvia Geist
Cris Gera
Ulrike Gerold
Daniel Giménez-Cacho
Amber Ginsburg
Jorge Glem
Jacques Godbout
Susanne Goga
Francisco Goldman
Mónica Gómez
Adam Gopnik
Nina Gorfer
Eric Gottesman
Scarlett Hooft Graafland
Nicholas Griffin
Niall Griffiths
Lev Grossman
Jean-Louis Grosmaire
Wendy Guerra
Lars Gule
Agnete G. Haaland
Solomon Hailemariam
Jaime Hales
Signe Hammer
Daniel Handler
Wolfram Hänel
James Hannaham
Linda Hansen
Dennis Haskell
Tom Healy
Elke Heinemann
Georges Hélal
Elizabeth Hemmerdinger
Alban Nikolai Herbst
Ramón Hernández
Khaled Hosseini
Iman Humaydan
Tanya Huntington
Siri Hustvedt
David Henry Hwang
Tiina Itkonen
Bianca Jagger
Jeffrey James
Elisha July
Wanuri Kahiu
Kätlin Kaldmaa
Sofia Karim
Mary Karr
Entela Kasi
Lucina Kathmann
Nicholas Kawinga
Phil Klay
Hubert Klöpfer
José Kozer
Enrique Krauze
Ebo Krdum
Konstantin Küspert
Marco Kusumawijaya
Maira Landa
Ola Larsmo
Hamlet Lavastida
Eric Lax
Chang-rae Lee
Joanne Leedom-Ackerman
Svenja Leiber
Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Levi
Luciana Levinton
Gwyneth Lewis
Christoph Links
John Lithgow
Julio Llopis
Aurora López Cancino
Jorge Mañes Rubio
Carlos Manuel Álvarez
Luis Alberto Mariño Fernández
Lesley Marshall
Émile Martel
Yann Martel
Sara Martínez Castro
Maria Matienzo Puerto
Michel Matos
Colum McCann
Jay McInerney
Layda Melián
Dinaw Mengestu
Claire Messud
Arno Rafael Minkkinen
Marta Minujín
Herman Mondaca Raitieri
Ricardo Montaner
Milena Montaño Cavero
Rosa Montero
Charles Montpetit
Rick Moody
Michel Mouffe
Silvanos Mudzvova
Paul Muldoon
Maximillia Muninzwa
Víctor Muñoz
Besnik Mustafaj
Perumal Murugan
Azar Nafisi
Ahmed Naji
Toni Navarro
Ralf Nestmeyer
Hege Newth
Sylvie Nicolas
Lynn Nottage
Yanelys Núñez Leyva
Kurt Oesterle
Jorge Olivera Castillo
Nduko o'Matigere
Andrés Oppenheimer
Begoña Osés
Raquel Otheguy
Amaury Pacheco del Monte
Orhan Pamuk
Gregory Pardlo
Daniel Pedreira
Michel Perea Enríquez (Nonardo Perea)
Izet Perviz
Virginia Phiri
Juan Enrique Piedrabuena Ruiz-Tagle
Claudia Piñeiro
Robert Pinsky
Platon
Elena Poniatowska Amor
Antonio Prata
Ahmet Prenci
Francine Prose
Marilyn Pupo
Shwan Dler Qaradaki
Alicia Quiñones
Selma Raljevic
Sergio Ramírez
Alejandro Riaño
Elvira Rodríguez Puerto
Germán Rojas
Anamely Ramos
Claudia Rankine
Farvash Razav
Elif Refig
Molly Ringwald
Arturo Ripstein
Alix Ritchie
Romina Ressia
Kurt Roessler
Alexis Romay
José A. Ruano
Karina Sainz Borgo
Fakhri Saleh
Salomón Salcedo Baca
Arturo Sandoval
Francis Sánchez
Philippe Sands
Sandra Santana
John Ralston Saul
George Saunders
Simon Schama
Steve Schapiro
Stacy Schiff
Manfred Schlösser
Eugene Schoulgin
Torsten Schulz
Dread Scott
Alice Sebold
Daniel Seekersway
Gabriel Seisdedos
Tanya Selvaratnam
Ingeborg Senneset
Oleg Sentsov
Enrique Serna
Oumar Farouk Sesay
Jan Schlegel
Kim Schwanhäuße
Helene Schmitz
Flamur Shala
Paata Shamugia
Omaid Sharifi
Guillermo Sheridan
Musa Sheriff
Gary Shteyngart
Jane Smiley
Kiki Smith
Bosco Sodi
Andrew Solomon
Burhan Sönmez
Chak Sopheap
Alec Soth
Vee Speers
Art Spiegelman
Cornelia Springer
Kjersti Løken Stavrum
Richard Stengel
Siri Stolt-Nielsen
Tom Stoppard
Michi Strausfeld
Meryl Streep
Rose Styron
Dariel Suárez
Aatish Taseer
Elma Tataragic
Rae Marie Taylor
Jennifer Teo
Danielle Thibault
Ma Thida
Colm Toibin
Mauricio Tolosa
Carles Torner
Edmundo Torrejón Jurado
Daniel Torres Rodríguez
Julie Trébault
Calvin Trillin
Salil Tripathi
Margarita Trushina
Tanja Tuma
Scott Turow
Anne Tyler
Kanchana Ugbabe
Luis Alberto Urrea
Alexis Valdés
Mario Vargas Llosa
Carlos Vásconez
Astrid Vehstedt
Burkhart Veigel
Oscar Vela
Leni Velasco
Xavier Velasco
Regula Venske
Mélissa Verreault
Lia Villares
Félix Villeneuve
Ayelet Waldman
Per Wästberg
Peter Wawerzinek
Jacob Weisberg
Catrina Wessels
Tara Westover
Herbert Wiesner
Tobias Wolff
Kacey Wong
Yotuel
Gabriel Zaid
Moisés Zamora
For more information, please contact:
For PEN International, in London, Georgia Beeston (English): Georgia.Beeston@pen-international.org and Sabrina Tucci Sabrina.Tucci@pen-international.org; in the Americas, Alicia Quiñones (English, Spanish): alicia.quinones@pen-international.org, or Verónica Maza: veronica.maza@pen-international.org