At the end of an interview with Tania Costa for CiberCuba, the artist and activist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara summarized his religious, cultural, and political identity in a single phrase: "I am with Oshún and I am with the Virgin of Copper, but most importantly, I am with Cuba."
The statement emerged when the interviewer asked about the Oshún necklace she was wearing and about the performance "Restoring the Broken Virgin" she performed upon her arrival in Miami on July 18, 2026, after serving five years in the maximum-security prison of Guanajay.
Otero responded that for him both figures are the same, playing with the Afro-Cuban syncretism in which Oshún, Yoruba orisha of love and freshwater, is popularly identified with the Virgin of Charity of Copper, patroness of Cuba.
But the response went beyond the spiritual: the activist made it clear that his ultimate loyalty is to his people, above any religious or political affiliation.
"The people who love me, I love even more. I love them more, and we will continue working for Cuba to be free," he added in that same final message to his followers.
Before that closure, Otero used the metaphor of muscle to describe the process that, in his view, Cuban society must undergo: "The muscle that breaks down through exercise separates, and that’s when the new muscle has to come in, and that’s how the muscle grows. It happens in the brain and it happens in society. It has to happen in Cuban society."
In that same vein, he rejected the idea of waiting for a providential leader to resolve the island's crisis: "We have to learn to be democratic. We have to learn to fight for our future and not leave it in the hands of someone, a savior who comes, a leader who comes to tell us what to do and how to do it."
Otero also highlighted the resilience of the new generations within Cuba as a sign that change is possible: "Today, young people go out to the streets every day to protest despite having been doing so for five years, six years, and they keep going, keep going, keep going."
He was humble about the role he can play: “We are part of a change, but there are so many people who want to change what can actually be changed.”
The activist, whose departure from Cuba was a forced exile as he described himself —the State Security made it clear that the only way out of prison was to leave the country— concluded the interview with a clear vision of what he hopes to build from exile.
"For CiberCuba to have a building in Havana and to be able to broadcast from that location, so that we can all have a place in that reality," he said, outlining a mission that extends beyond his own persona.
While Otero speaks from Miami, his colleague from the San Isidro Movement and co-author of "Patria y Vida," Maykel Osorbo, remains imprisoned in Cuba despite the fact that the United States approved a humanitarian parole for him in July 2026.
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