Maykel Osorbo

Maykel Castillo Pérez, better known as "El Osorbo" or Maykel Obsorbo, is a Cuban dissident rapper born in Havana on August 20, 1983. Coming from humble origins and self-taught, Obsorbo, along with Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, is one of the leaders of the San Isidro Movement (MSI) in Cuba and one of the prominent figures 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 "For you, Lord", in which he accuses Fidel Castro of being responsible for the hardships and precarious situation in which the Cuban people find themselves. "For you, Lord, is why injustice exists, for you, Lord, 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 (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 longer than the prosecution's request) for the alleged crime of attacking a police officer. Maykel was released in December of that same year.

Since that moment, his tireless work as an activist has left him with a string of detentions, police abuses, and harassment by the State Security organs to his friends and family. He has personally experienced mistreatment and aggression from Cuban police officers.

In August 2020, he made headlines for sewing his mouth shut as a sign of protest against the constant harassment and repression he was subjected to.

On November 18, 2020, he went on a hunger and thirst strike along with Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara inside the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement when State Security agents cut off their food supply and took away the food and money from the neighbor who was helping them. The writer Katherine Bisquet Rodríguez, Iliana Hernández, activist Esteban Rodríguez, and self-employed worker Osmani Pardo also joined the strike subsequently.

Alcántara and Obsorbo presented a deteriorated state of health. The main demand of the 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" with him and El Funky.

Obsorbo and El Funky have joined their voices in songs like "DIAZCARAO," where they lash out against the management of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and all the clique leading the Cuban government, and in "What are they going to talk to me about," where they call for freedom for Cuba and vindicate their fight for democracy and human rights.

Their latest song alongside Funky, "El Aletazo de Alpidio," was released following the events of November 27th, in which the Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso, used violence against the protesters gathered in front of 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 having eluded the surveillance to which they are subjected in their respective neighborhoods, they arrived at the Capitol in Havana to demand the resignation of the Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso.