MIAMI, United States. — “If there is a revolution in Cuba, it is the Internet and social networks.” This was stated by the Cuban visual artist Julio Llópiz-Casal in an interview granted to CubaNetwhere he addressed the power of art and free expression within the Cuban political scene, marked, since 1959, by the iron control over ideas and symbols.
In the words of the artist, the power of the Internet and social networks has influenced the massification of discourses and opinions on the Island, generating a scenario of confrontation that even escapes State control.
“As soon as ideas begin to move, a very strong chain reaction occurs that very easily escapes state control, and, of course, the way politics works in Cuba, that always ends with repression.”
Llópiz-Casal insisted that, historically, the island’s regime has always tried to control the matrix of opinion within the world of art and culture in order to stay in power. In this sense, the artist identifies Words to intellectualsby Fidel Castro, as a good example of Castro’s interference in the nation’s cultural narrative.
“They want what is said to move along the lines of propaganda and what they understand to be good and should be recognized,” said the young man, a member of the Movement 27N.
Julio Llópiz-Casal also referred to the events of July 11, 2021 (J11) and the sentences received by those who went out to demonstrate during that day. For the artist, the State’s reaction to these events has set a harmful precedent for the Cuban nation.
“The way that 11J happened and the way that the convictions against the protesters happened put the threshold of violence at a level that I think it had not been before in the history of Cuba.”
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