San Isidro Movement

The San Isidro Movement was born in September 2018 as a direct response to the governmental Decree 349, which threatened to penalize artistic creation and expression in Cuba. Following the publication of the Decree, a group of artists and activists joined together in a series of actions to "promote, protect, and defend the full freedom of expression, association, creation, and dissemination of art and culture in Cuba, empowering society towards a future with democratic values." With such intent, the San Isidro Movement was born, taking its name from the impoverished and marginalized Havana neighborhood where it is based.

The Movement has been committed since then to the fight for the legalization of autonomous spaces for art and for freedom of expression in all its forms; this despite the constant criminalization of the group, and the frequent arrests and abuses suffered by its members, among whom Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel “Osorbo” Castillo stand out in particular.

With just over two years of existence, the San Isidro Movement has put the Cuban government in check on several occasions, which has systematically exercised repression to abort its initiatives, including a protest performance in front of the Capitol in Havana, the seat of the legislative power, which became the group's first significant public act. After pressure at various levels, the Cuban government, through the Ministry of Culture, publicly declared that it would pause the implementation of Decree 349. This was largely considered a victory for the members of the group.

Since then, the members of the San Isidro Movement - a group with an open and flexible structure - have been active agents in the fight for change in Cuban society, supporting artists who suffer the direct consequences of the regime's repression, and other representative sectors of independent civil society in Cuba. Their most recent action has been a hunger strike to demand the release of Denis Solís, a rapper who has been sentenced to 8 months in prison for alleged contempt of authority.