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Protests in Miami and DC as solidarity for San Isidro Movement grows in Latin America, & prestigious artist challenges silence of American art institutions
Solidarity continues to grow across the Spanish speaking world for the San Isidro Movement, and in the Cuban diaspora. In Argentina, key national figures on human rights, culture, academia and politics are speaking out for free expression in Cuba and in support of the Cuban artists collective that is currently a target of Havana's repression. Yesterday in Miami and Washington DC young people gathered to show their support for the San Isidro Movement, to demand and defend freedom of expression in Cuba, and to call for the release of political prisoner and artist Denis Solis, and all other political prisoners in the island.
On December 3, 2020 from 3:00pm to 5:00pm Cuban human rights defenders from the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), CubaDecide, Somos +, Patmos, Center for a Free Cuba, and others not affiliated with any organization protested for the freedom of Denis Solis, and all political prisoners in Cuba, in defense of free expression and in solidarity with the San Isidro Movement.
The San Isidro Movement, a collective of artists founded in 2018 to protest Decree 349, targeted with repression by Havana for defending free expression and demanding the release of Denis Solis, an artist and musician wrongly jailed by the Castro dictatorship.
In the United States, key national figures and institutions on human rights, and politics have spoken out for the San Isidro Movement and artistic freedom, but in the United States important cultural and academic figures and institutions have remained silent. Cuban American artist Coco Fusco has written an open letter dated December 2, 2020 that raises some important questions.
"Many will say this is just a Cuban issue, but it is not. I am asking Americans to stop pretending that your silence has no political consequences. Bruguera and Alvarez are among the best-known Cubans outside the country and are being targeted precisely because they are known in the United States, precisely because they have been supported by American institutions. This is indeed an American problem as much as a Cuban one.
What else has to happen in order for American foundations, museums and newspapers that have supported Tania Bruguera and Carlos Manuel Alvarez to speak out about this situation? Where are all the museum curators that gush about Tania's work? Where is MoMA? Where are the collectors that have bought it? Where are the editors that have published Carlos Manuel Alvarez? Where are the funders that have given Bruguera and Alvarez grants and awards? Let me name a few of the benefactors so as not to be unnecessarily vague: The Guggenheim Foundation, The Herb Alpert Foundation, The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The Cisneros Foundation, The Meadows Foundation, and The Open Society Foundation in philanthropy. The New York Times, Vice, and Greywolf Press in publishing. Where are the Black Lives Matter leaders that took time to salute Fidel upon his death but say nothing about police brutality against Black artists in Cuba? Why does American progressive media ignore this? There has been nothing about this in The Nation, Mother Jones, In These Times, The Intercept, Democracy Now, Latino USA or Remezcla or Radio Ambulante."
Fusco is right, and with regards to Black Lives Matter that have said that "silence is violence" and been critical of the "Blue Lives Matter" campaign their silence before the shooting death of a 27 year old unarmed black man, Hansel E. Hernández, on June 24, 2020 by Cuban Revolutionary National police and the dictatorship's subsequent "Heroes of the Blue" campaign glorifying the dictatorship's own police raises troubling questions. Hansel had been shot in the back.
Hansel E. Hernandez shot in the back by Cuban revolutionary police on June 24, 2020
Worse yet, that a serious publication such as The Progressive, in the aftermath of the George Floyd travesty would run a story on June 18, 2020 titled "Foreign Correspondent: Police Lessons From Cuba" by Reese Erlich that claims "Contrary to the image of brutal and repressive communists, police in Cuba offer an instructive example for activists in the United States." Encouraging the reform of police departments in the United States along the dictatorial model of Havana's 61 year old police state is extremely troubling.
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