¿Why have artists been leading the fight for human rights in Cuba? How is the situation regarding artistic and individual freedoms on the Island? They were questions that received answers on Monday in Madrid at the conference “Art and Resistance in Cuba”, sponsored by Amnesty International (AI).
In the event, broadcast live by the independent magazine Tree Inverted, The playwright Yunior García Aguilera, the art curator Yanelys Núñez Leyva, the art historian Carolina Barrero, the poet Katherine Bisquet, and Erika Guevara participated.AI director for the Americas.
“The world has to recognize and denounce the abuses that occur in Cuba, where there is a dictatorship that oppresses the people“, declared Núñez Leyva, a member of the San Isidro Movement (MSI).
For the activist in Cuba there is a process of “violent and forced” uprooting and expressed fear for the discourse that is handled in Spain on emigration“because it demonstrates the position of the Spanish Government with respect to Cuba”, Radio Television Marti.
In this sense, he considered that “Not recognizing political asylum for Cubans is not recognizing that there is a crisis, a dictatorship”.
For its part, Bisquet referred to the change in Cuba, which he understands as a “symbolic change” in which “artists have influenced” a lot. For the writer, forced into exile along with the artist Hamlet Lavastida, this transformation is achieved “through spaces, our bodies, resistance.”
Regarding Decree-Law 349, which legalized censorship, Carolina Barrero described it as a kind of catalyst for change. “Instead of causing fear, it mobilized the artists,” she said.
For Yunior García Aguilera, “on July 11 the myth of the Cuban Revolution entered the metastasis phase”. He lamented that the right to protest is not respected on the Island. “The blue unicorn never existed,” she said.
In the opinion of Erika Guevara Rosas, “art in Latin America is key in the recovery of memory.”
He warned that “in Cuba expressing that resistance through art carries an enormous risk” and thanked “all these artists for their courage.”
