The Oxi Day Foundation, based in the United States, awarded theCourage Award for Cuban independent artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara for defending human rights on the island.
“The art of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, his fight for freedom of expression and his uncompromising stance against autocracy reveal the power of resistance,” the foundation said in a statement.
The organizers of the award saw in Otero Alcántara a symbol and leader within theSan Isidro Movement of Cuba, protagonists of anti-government protests this year.
"Art requires courage, which has been demonstrated repeatedly. Its aesthetics require a solid philosophical foundation and a strong sense of ethics," the organizers added when announcing the award.
The distinction will also be given to Zarifa Ghafari, Afghanistan's first and youngest female mayor, while other people will receive recognition from the Oxi Day Foundation.
Veterans Efthemios Bentas and Stephen Cherpelis will receive the Oxi Service Award for participating in World War II and the Korean War, respectively.
While Peter J. Vergados, a Vietnam War veteran, will receive the Calamos Service Award and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will be honored with the Metropolitan Chrysostomos Award.
“I am very happy that Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, my very friend, is being recognized for his courage. Of course I would love for him to be recognized as a visual artist, but I believe that his art is very much a function of freedom and courage," independent journalist María Matienzo told Martí Noticias after hearing the news.
The Cuban independent artistHe has been detained for more than one hundred days in a maximum security prison in Guanajay, after the peaceful protests of 11J in Havana, where he was detained by the Police.
The island's authorities are trying to accuse Otero Alcántara of aggravated contempt, instigation to commit a crime and public disorder and in the meantime he is in preventive detention, according to Cuban laws.
The awards will be presented on October 28 at the National World War II Memorial in Washington, DC. That date was chosen because in 1940 the Greek people took to the streets to shout "no" to the fascist threats of the Italian Benito Mussolini.
This is the second opportunity that theOxi Day Foundation Courage Award It is delivered to a Cuban. In 2003 he received itBerta Soler, of the Ladies in White, for asking for the freedom of the political prisoners of the Black Spring in Cuba.
TheOxi Day Foundation informs American policymakers and the public about the role Greece played in the outcome of World War II and celebrates modern heroes who exhibit the same courage as the Greeks “in preserving and promoting freedom and democracy throughout the world.” ”.
What do you think?
COMMENTFiled in: