ArtesMiami was the Presenting Sponsor of a screening of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara: Estamos Conectados, a documentary by Cuban exile filmmaker Ernesto Fundora Hernández. The event, organized by Elvis Fuentes, director of the Coral Gables Museum, took place on the anniversary of El Maleconazo, the spontaneous anti-government uprising that erupted in Havana on August 5, 1994 and became the largest anti-government protest in Cuba since 1959.
The program was made possible by the Coral Gables Museum, presented by ArtesMiami, with support from ONE Sotheby’s International Realty, the CINTAS Foundation, Tere Shelton Bernace, and Drs. Ernesto and Malena Erdmann.
ArtesMiami President, Dr. Aida Levitan spoke at the beginning of the event about the courage demonstrated by the Movimiento San Isidro artists and by Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, and the suffering they have endured in Cuban political prisons.
Recently released after completing a five-year prison sentence and arriving in Miami on July 18, 2026, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara joined the audience for a post-screening conversation. The artist also accepted questions from the audience after the screening.
Hundreds of Cuban Americans and others interested in the resistance movement Movimiento San Isidro attended the screening, thus taking advantage of the opportunity to learn more about one of Cuba’s leading contemporary visual and performance artists and activists.
Drawing on footage filmed between 2016 and 2021, archival materials, and journalistic research, Fundora’s documentary chronicles key moments in Otero Alcántara’s career and the events that led to his arrest and imprisonment following the July 11, 2021, protests in Cuba. The film examines the intersection of contemporary art, civic engagement, and freedom of expression, presenting the story of an artist whose work became closely connected to recent Cuban history.
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara: Estamos Conectados was the opening program of Persecuted: Artists Censored by Communist Cuba, a two-part documentary series by Fundora. The series examines the lives of Otero Alcántara and writer José Lezama Lima, two influential cultural figures whose work became the target of state censorship in different periods of Cuban history. Both documentaries will be presented in Spanish with English subtitles.
ArtesMiami is a 501(c)3 organization founded in 1995 by Dr. Aida Levitan, its President. It supports and promotes Miami artists and cultural organizations. In the past it has partnered with the Coral Gables Museum to present a variety of cultural programs. For more information, follow ArtesMiami on Instagram and Facebook.
The Coral Gables Museum is dedicated to celebrating the civic, arts and cultural heritage of Coral Gables and South Florida. Through exhibitions, educational initiatives, and community programs, the museum fosters a deeper understanding and appreciation of the built and natural environments that shape our region.