Maykel Castillo Pérez, better known as "El Osorbo" or Maykel Obsorbo, is a rebellious Cuban rapper born in Havana on August 20, 1983. From humble beginnings and self-taught, Obsorbo is, along with Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, one of the leaders of the San Isidro Movement (MSI) in Cuba and one of the most important faces in the fight that more and more 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 in which the Cuban people find themselves. "Por ti señor is why injustice exists, por ti señor my people feel sad, you were the one who promised things you did not fulfill."
On September 25, 2018, after performing a concert at La Madriguera (the headquarters of the Asociación Hermanos Saiz in Havana), where he and other artists spoke out against Decree 349, Maykel was arrested at his home. In March 2019, he was brought to trial and was sentenced to a year and a half in prison (six months longer than the prosecution's request), for the alleged crime of assaulting a police officer. Maykel was released in December of the same year.
Since that moment, his tireless work as an activist has resulted in a series of detentions, police abuses, and harassment directed at his friends and family, and he has personally endured mistreatment and assaults by the Cuban police.
In August 2020, he made headlines for sewing his mouth shut as a sign of protest against the ongoing harassment and repression he was facing.
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 took the food and money from the neighbor who was helping them. Also joining the strike later were the writer Katherine Bisquet Rodríguez, Iliana Hernández, the activist Esteban Rodríguez, and the self-employed worker Osmani Pardo.
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 was part of the collaboration between the popular Cuban groups Orishas and Gente de Zona, who recorded the song Ojalá Pase together 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 songs like "DIAZCARAO," where they criticize the management of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and the whole clique leading the Cuban government, and in "What are they going to talk to me about," in which they demand freedom for Cuba and advocate for their struggle for democracy and human rights.
His latest song with Funky, "El Aletazo de Alpidio," has been released following the events of November 27, when the 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, together with 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.
