Statement
"No justification" for persecution: International artists demand freedom for Cuban artists
Cuba
In the last several months, the campaign of persecution and harassment against artists in Cuba has reached terrifying new levels. On July 11, after historic mass protests broke out across the country, police and security forces carried out arbitrary arrests and physical attacks against peaceful protesters, detaining more than 1,120 artists and creatives. At least 50 artists have been under house arrest, imprisoned, or criminal investigation in recent months.
Artists have been on the frontlines of the protest movement in Cuba for months, using their platforms to draw national and international attention to social and political inequities on the island. Now, over 300 prominent figures from the arts are calling on the Cuban government to immediately stop its abuses against Cuban artists in a powerful statement co-signed by PEN International, the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) at PEN America, and Human Rights Watch.
Signatories include Meryl Streep, Orhan Pamuk, Paul Auster, Elena Poniatowska, Isabel Allende, Jules Feiffer, and Khaled Hosseini, as well as notable Cuban artists, including Tania Bruguera, Coco Fusco, and Hamlet Lavastida.
Our letter calls on the Cuban regime to respect the fundamental role that art and artists play in society, and immediately stop harassing artists for engaging in political and social critiques of the regime while exercising their right to creative expression.
Read the full text of the letter below.
December 8, 2021
Artists from around the world send this message to the Cuban government:
LET CUBAN ARTISTS LIVE AND WORK FREELY
We, the undersigned artists—along with PEN International, PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), and Human Rights Watch—call on the Cuban government to respect the fundamental right to freedom of expression, including artistic freedom, in Cuba. The Cuban government should immediately stop its unrelenting abuses against artists, release all arbitrarily detained artists, and drop all charges against them.
Art is powerful. Regardless of discipline, art allows us to reveal truths about our society and ourselves, promote dialogue, express our cultural identity, and bear witness to inhumanity. Artists can rally our communities and serve as a beacon of light amid darkness. It is because of the power of art that many governments, including the Cuban government, fear and condemn artists.
Cuban artists, including from the San Isidro, 27N, and Archipiélago movements, have drawn domestic and international attention to the Cuban government’s callous disregard for human rights, partially laying the foundation for the massive protests that erupted across the country on July 11, 2021. For years, these independent artists have organized peaceful demonstrations and increasingly used the internet to mobilize protests and report on abuses. For instance, the viral song “Motherland and Life” (Patria y Vida), which repurposes the Cuban government’s old slogan, “motherland or death” (patria o muerte) to criticize repression in the country, was later sung by demonstrators during protests.
In response, the Cuban government has systematically targeted Cuban artists, including, more recently, those who participated in the July 11 protests. Several dozen have reportedly been arrested, detained, or placed under house arrest. Several remain in detention and face bogus criminal charges. Others are under house arrest and subject to constant surveillance. Many others who fled the country have not been allowed to return and will remain in exile for the foreseeable future.
There is no justification for persecuting artists for peacefully expressing their views. We call on the Cuban government to respect the fundamental role that art and artists play in society and immediately stop harassing artists for engaging in political and social critiques that are not in line with the government’s rigid ideology.
Throwing artists in jail or exiling them from the country forever – in response to their art, words, and ideas – is abusive and inhumane. We stand proudly in solidarity with Cuban artists. Art should be free from censorship and repression, in Cuba and everywhere.
Signed:
Jane Aaron
Héctor Abad Faciolince
José Luis Acevedo Daza
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Ben Andoni
Folu Agoi
Ayad Akhtar
Shahidul Alam
José Antonio Albertini
Carlos Alberto Montaner
Masih Alinejad
Isabel Allende
Diane Alméras
Angélica Altuzar Constantino
Ileana Álvarez González
Asieh Amini
Carlos Anibal Alonso
Kwame Anthony Appiah
Marie Arana
Homero Aridjis
Salman Asif
Reza Aslan
Jessica Atal
Fidaa Ataya
Paul Auster
Nadezda Azhgikhina
Asiel Babastro
Badiucao
Alec Baldwin
Jürgen Banscherus
Peter Barbey
Lee Bellavance Diamond
Gioconda Belli
Carlos Betancourt
Katherine Bisquet
Erling Borgen
Beatriz Bracher
Luis Brandoni
Nick Brandt
Marta Breen
Mogos Brhane
Roberto Briones
Roberto Brodsky
Tania Bruguera
Ahmed Burić
Romana Cacchioli
Lydia Cacho
Jennine Capó Crucet
Adriana Carranca
Jorge Castañeda
Iliana Cepero
Francisco Céspedes
Baltasar Cevc
Helena Chávez Mac Gregor
Suhyun Choi
Sandra Cisneros
Jorge Encinas Cladera
Jennifer Clement
Isabel Coixet
Sarah Cooper
Anton Corbijn
Armando Correa
Jeff Cowen
Ricardo Cravo Albin
Luis de la Paz
Maria del Pilar Clemente
Fanny del Rio
Enkel Demi
Jeanne Demuth
Denise Desautels
Ernesto Diaz Rodriguez
Reinier Diaz Vega
Nelson Dino
Ana Dipp
Jan J. Dominique
Theophilus Donoghue
Rita Dove
Christopher Durang
Gregorio Duvivier
Jennifer Egan
Kai Eide
Álvaro Enrigue
Louise Erdrich
Maria Eugenia Ayala
Lena Falkenhagen
Jules Feiffer
David Francis
Julia Franck
Jonathan Franzen
Julia Fullerton-Batten
Coco Fusco
Inga Gaile
Angye Gaona
Yunior Garcia Aguilera
Ivette Garcia González
Dominique Gaucher
Sylvia Geist
Cris Gera
Ulrike Gerold
Daniel Giménez-Cacho
Amber Ginsburg
Jorge Glem
Jacques Godbout
Susanne Goga
Francisco Goldman
Mónica Gómez
Adam Gopnik
Nina Gorfer
Eric Gottesman
Scarlett Hooft Graafland
Nicholas Griffin
Niall Griffiths
Lev Grossman
Jean-Louis Grosmaire
Wendy Guerra
Lars Gule
Agnete G. Haaland
Solomon Hailemariam
Jaime Hales
Signe Hammer
Daniel Handler
Wolfram Hänel
James Hannaham
Linda Hansen
Dennis Haskell
Tom Healy
Elke Heinemann
Georges Hélal
Elizabeth Hemmerdinger
Alban Nikolai Herbst
Ramón Hernández
Khaled Hosseini
Iman Humaydan
Tanya Huntington
Siri Hustvedt
David Henry Hwang
Tiina Itkonen
Bianca Jagger
Jeffrey James
Elisha July
Wanuri Kahiu
Kätlin Kaldmaa
Sofia Karim
Mary Karr
Entela Kasi
Lucina Kathmann
Nicholas Kawinga
Phil Klay
Hubert Klöpfer
José Kozer
Enrique Krauze
Ebo Krdum
Konstantin Küspert
Marco Kusumawijaya
Maira Landa
Ola Larsmo
Hamlet Lavastida
Eric Lax
Chang-rae Lee
Joanne Leedom-Ackerman
Svenja Leiber
Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Levi
Luciana Levinton
Gwyneth Lewis
Christoph Links
John Lithgow
Julio Llopis
Aurora López Cancino
Jorge Mañes Rubio
Carlos Manuel Álvarez
Luis Alberto Mariño Fernández
Lesley Marshall
Émile Martel
Yann Martel
Sara Martinez Castro
Maria Matienzo Puerto
Michel Matos
Colum McCann
Jay McInerney
Layda Melián
Dinaw Mengestu
Claire Messud
Arno Rafael Minkkinen
Marta Minujin
Herman Mondaca Raitieri
Ricardo Montaner
Milena Montaño Cavero
Rosa Montero
Charles Montpetit
Rick Moody
Michel Mouffe
Silvanos Mudzvova
Paul Muldoon
Maximillia Muninzwa
Victor Muñoz
Besnik Mustafaj
Perumal Murugan
Azar Nafisi
Ahmed Naji
Toni Navarro
Ralf Nestmeyer
Hege Newth
Sylvie Nicolas
Lynn Nottage
Yanelys Núñez Leyva
Kurt Oesterle
Jorge Olivera Castillo
Nduko o'Matigere
Andrés Oppenheimer
Begoña Osés
Raquel Otheguy
Amaury Pacheco del Monte
Orhan Pamuk
Gregory Pardlo
Daniel Pedreira
Michel Perea Enriquez (Nonardo Perea)
Izet Perviz
Virginia Phiri
Juan Enrique Piedrabuena Ruiz-Tagle
Claudia Piñeiro
Robert Pinsky
Platon
Elena Poniatowska Amor
Antonio Prata
Ahmet Prenci
Francine Prose
Marilyn Pupo
Shwan Dler Qaradaki
Alicia Quiñones
Selma Raljevic
Sergio Ramirez
Alejandro Riaño
Elvira Rodriguez Puerto
Germán Rojas
Anamely Ramos
Claudia Rankine
Farvash Razav
Elif Refig
Molly Ringwald
Arturo Ripstein
Alix Ritchie
Romina Ressia
Kurt Roessler
Alexis Romay
José A. Ruano
Karina Sainz Borgo
Fakhri Saleh
Salomón Salcedo Baca
Arturo Sandoval
Francis Sánchez
Philippe Sands
Sandra Santana
John Ralston Saul
George Saunders
Simon Schama
Steve Schapiro
Stacy Schiff
Manfred Schlösser
Eugene Schoulgin
Torsten Schulz
Dread Scott
Alice Sebold
Daniel Seekersway
Gabriel Seisdedos
Tanya Selvaratnam
Ingeborg Senneset
Oleg Sentsov
Enrique Serna
Oumar Farouk Sesay
Jan Schlegel
Kim Schwanhäuße
Helene Schmitz
Flamur Shala
Paata Shamugia
Omaid Sharifi
Guillermo Sheridan
Musa Sheriff
Gary Shteyngart
Jane Smiley
Kiki Smith
Bosco Sodi
Andrew Solomon
Burhan Sönmez
Chak Sopheap
Alec Soth
Vee Speers
Art Spiegelman
Cornelia Springer
Kjersti Løken Stavrum
Richard Stengel
Siri Stolt-Nielsen
Tom Stoppard
Michi Strausfeld
Meryl Streep
Rose Styron
Dariel Suárez
Aatish Taseer
Elma Tataragic
Rae Marie Taylor
Jennifer Teo
Danielle Thibault
Ma Thida
Colm Toibin
Mauricio Tolosa
Carles Torner
Edmundo Torrejón Jurado
Daniel Torres Rodriguez
Julie Trébault
Calvin Trillin
Salil Tripathi
Margarita Trushina
Tanja Tuma
Scott Turow
Anne Tyler
Kanchana Ugbabe
Luis Alberto Urrea
Alexis Valdés
Mario Vargas Llosa
Carlos Vásconez
Astrid Vehstedt
Burkhart Veigel
Oscar Vela
Leni Velasco
Xavier Velasco
Regula Venske
Mélissa Verreault
Lia Villares
Félix Villeneuve
Ayelet Waldman
Per Wästberg
Peter Wawerzinek
Jacob Weisberg
Catrina Wessels
Tara Westover
Herbert Wiesner
Tobias Wolff
Kacey Wong
Yotuel
Gabriel Zaid
Moisés Zamora
Our apologies for the missing accent over the "i," we are working on this issue. / Nuestras disculpas por la falta de acento en la "i", estamos trabajando en este asunto.