Yulier Rodriguez Perez was born in Florida. Not the state in the U.S. He is from Cuba's Florida, a municipality in the province of Camaguey.
Getting spray paint and materials isn't easy for graffiti writers working on the Communist island. Despite the challenges, the 27-year-old abstractionist said he has painted at least 200 walls in Havana since he moved there about three years ago.
His deformed creatures are hard to miss. In one small wall, a thin layer of ruby red paint surrounds the charcoal drawing of a shouting head. In another, blue and red blend into purple, as two floating figures reach out for each other. "I think that graffiti is an artistic work," said Rodriguez, better known as artist Yulier P.
While in the U.S. walls with high visibility are an advertising gold mine, in Cuba the walls with visibility are reserved for the government's propaganda. Rodriguez defied the norm. Authorities kicked him out of his art studio. He was arrested Aug. 17 and he was released on the evening of Aug. 18.
For graffiti writers worldwide, the boundary between being a vandal and an artist is not clearly defined. Rodriguez said he is an artist who has been beautifying crumbling walls. The Cuban government disagrees and ordered him to cover all of his 200 paintings in Havana by Friday as a condition for his release.
Rodriguez's supporters believe Cuban authorities set him up for failure with an impossible task. His troubles began after an interview with 14 y Medio last year. The website is part of a wave of illegal independent media critical of the government.
"My pictures are like fables, a portrait of people's experiences ... we are souls in a purgatory called Cuba," Rodriguez said during the 14 y Medio interview.
Cuban activist Yoani Sanchez, who has also been the subject of censorship and harassment, started the news site in 2014.