Maykel Castillo Pérez, better known as “El Osorbo” or Maykel Obsorbo, is a dissenting Cuban rapper born in Havana on August 20, 1983. Coming from humble beginnings and being self-taught, Obsorbo is, alongside Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, one of the leaders of the San Isidro Movement (MSI) in Cuba and one of the most prominent faces in the struggle that an increasing number of young Cuban activists are waging against the island's regime.
In 2015, Maykel was imprisoned for his controversial song "Por ti señor," in which he accuses Fidel Castro of being responsible for the ills and the precarious situation faced by the Cuban people. “Por ti señor is why injustice exists, por ti señor my people feel sad, you were the one who promised things that you did not fulfill.”
On September 25, 2018, after performing a concert at La Madriguera (the headquarters of the Hermanos Saiz Association in Havana), where he, along with other artists, spoke out against Decree 349, Maykel was arrested at his home. In March 2019, he was brought to trial and sentenced to a year and a half in prison (six months more than the prosecutor's request), for the alleged crime of assaulting a police officer. Maykel was released in December of that same year.
Since that moment, his tireless work as an activist has resulted in a string of detentions, police abuses, and harassment from State Security toward his friends and family, and he has suffered firsthand mistreatment and assaults by Cuban police officers.
In August 2020, he made headlines for sewing his mouth shut as a sign of protest against the ongoing harassment and repression he was subjected to.
On November 18, 2020, he went on a hunger and thirst strike alongside Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara at the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement when State Security agents cut off their food supply and confiscated the food and money from the neighbor who was assisting them. The writer Katherine Bisquet Rodríguez, Iliana Hernández, activist Esteban Rodríguez, and self-employed worker Osmani Pardo later joined the hunger strike as well.
Alcántara and Obsorbo presented a deteriorated state of health. The main demand of the hunger strikers was the release of Denis Solís, also a member of the San Isidro Movement.
In December 2020, Maykel took part in the collaboration between the popular Cuban groups Orishas and Gente de Zona, who recorded the song "Ojalá Pase" with him and Funky.https://www.cibercuba.com/noticias/2020-12-23-u1-e186450-s27061-maykel-osorbo-une-orishas-gente-zona-nuevo-tema-musical
Obsorbo and Funky have also joined their voices in tracks like "DIAZCARAO," where they criticize the management of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and the entire clique leading the Cuban government, and in "What are they going to talk to me about," where they demand freedom for Cuba and advocate for their fight for democracy and human rights.
His latest song with Funky, "El Aletazo de Alpidio," was released in light of the events on November 27, when Minister of Culture Alpidio Alonso used violence against the protesters gathered outside the Ministry of Culture to demand the release of several detained artists and activists.
On February 5, 2021, alongside Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, after evading the surveillance they are subjected to in their respective neighborhoods, they arrived at the Capitol in Havana to demand the resignation of the Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso.
