The YouTuber protesting against the Castro regime in Cuba surprised his thousands of followers when he announced that he would run for mayor of the largest county in Florida and residence of almost a million Cubans.
DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS went to the “Rancho”, the influencer’s home and studio, where he spoke in an exclusive interview with him in order to learn about his human profile and understand his motivation for aspiring to such an important political position.
Otaola, 44 years old, originally from Camagüey, a province in eastern Cuba, says he belongs to the last generation of Cubans educated by teachers with a vocation, “who had a social commitment.” Something that influenced his personality. “I don’t have a gray history, I wasn’t an abused, suffered or tainted person,” said he, who was a presenter, theater and television actor on the island and in Miami.
He claims to feel blessed to have been successful in different endeavors. He considers himself someone who overcomes obstacles, “the guy who doesn’t stop, the person they don’t see coming, who they underestimate, like those surveys do now.”
About eight years ago, Otaola had enough sense and courage to seek independence through entrepreneurship. “After failing on television as producer and presenter of the third season of ‘Qué monada’, I decided to start my work on the networks.”
“There was practically no one on the networks, the ‘live’ on Facebook was just beginning. That tool is what gave me the opportunity to create what is a success today,” recalled the ‘influencer’, who currently has more than a million subscribers on his different platforms.
Success did not come without difficulties. “I decided to risk everything and stayed on the street, living in friends’ houses. I bet everything and lost everything. Still, I didn’t give up. There was an inner voice that told me don’t give up, this is the way. It takes work, but it’s here. Finally, life proved me right.”
Politics knocked on the door
According to Otaola, his original intention was to make an entertainment program. “But I realized that in my work there was a possibility of bringing a message to Cubans and that is when I began to do it constantly. At first, people abandoned the connection, many followers asked me not to talk about politics, why do you get involved in that, they asked. “He keeps talking about Chocolate – a Cuban singer of the urban genre -, about the artists, he keeps giving leather, they said.” But Otaola persisted and became the ‘influencer’ who made it fashionable on the island to be rebellious. Because of his work on the networks, the regime included him on a list of uncomfortable people, accusing him of being a terrorist.
Cuba is the essence
“Cuba is our essence. “They can tear us away from Cuba, but they cannot tear Cuba away from all of us,” he stated, who acknowledged that he arrived in Miami disgusted with what is happening on the island. “It took me years to understand that Cuba belongs to me and that no one can deprive me of what I am. That personal growth led me to the conviction that we Cubans will be free. Above all, because freedom begins in the individual himself, when he begins to think without ties and without fear. Something that is already beginning to happen in Cuba.”
The famous ‘youtuber’ explained that his speech to the Cuban people has varied over the years. At first he sought to raise awareness, currently he seeks “to make people feel outraged with the situation they suffer. There are multiple ways to make them react. I know they criticize me for the forms, but what interests me is the result.”
Without giving up the fight
Otaola denies having turned his back on the Cubans by launching this campaign for mayor of Miami-Dade. “What I do is try to reach a position where I can make decisions. The uprising of thousands of people on July 11 on the island showed us that the US administration is not interested in what is happening in Cuba. He is not interested in the fate of the Cubans. The result of July 11 was the confinement of more than a thousand political prisoners and the Democratic administration washes its hands of the suffering of the people. That reality led me to understand that I have to stop asking others to do things and take the reins myself.”
“It is my own audience that pushes me into politics. I had never visualized myself as a politician, it is not my comfort zone. I prefer to stay where I am. But if we want to have a different result, we have to do things differently.”
“I believe that from the position of county mayor I will be able to act much more effectively against the Cuban dictatorship, cutting off the funds that leave Miami. “It is not the same for an ‘influencer’ to say ‘Cuba has to be free’, as for the mayor of Miami-Dade to condemn the unjustified imprisonment and repression in Cuba from power.”
Mayoral challenges
Otaola affirms that he is committed to Miami-Dade “because it has given me the opportunity that was denied to me in the place where I was born. I see communism and misery coming. My commitment is to warn you. “I’m going to get to the mayor’s office to prevent this scourge from taking over the county.”
The candidate considers that security is the main challenge facing Miami-Dade. “We cannot let Miami become Los Angeles, New York or Philadelphia. We cannot let irregular immigration be pushed to crime and, therefore, crime rates increase, as is already happening, even though the county authorities try to disguise the numbers in an election year.”
“Without security there is no prosperity, no growth, no freedom,” he stressed.
Otaola was very critical of the high cost of living in South Florida. “People can’t afford the payments. I feel that there is a political force that seeks to displace the people who live in Miami, who have created Miami, because they are not high-income families.”
He then referred to the high prices of taxes and rents, and the chaos of public transportation, “a recurring electoral issue that is always without a solution,” underlining that the middle class is in danger and affirming that he has a commitment to his followers. : truck drivers, small business owners, housewives. “They are the people who pushed me to become mayor.”
A voter base
Among the advantages he says he has over his rivals to reach the mayor’s office, he mentioned having entered the campaign with something that politicians suffer from: “the people who follow me. “Politicians need ‘influencers’ and celebrities to induce the vote, I have my own voter base in my favor.”
“The mayor’s Achilles heel,” in Otaola’s opinion, “is the terrible job she has done in the last four years.” As he believes, it reflects what he describes as “a number of lies that he expressed in his last state of the county speech. And, to make matters worse, the year he achieved a record budget, he dared to ask for more money, 2.5 billion dollars in bonds that, if approved, will come out of our pockets.
According to polls, Otaola occupies third place in voter preference with 15%, Mayor Levine Cava 67% and Manny Cid (Mayor Miami Lakes) 16%. Regarding Cid, the ‘influencer’ said that “he is the mayor of a small city of 20 thousand inhabitants – Miami Lakes – a large percentage of them follow me and are going to vote for me. He considers that Cid, “is a politician who does not have a positive endorsement to show.”
When asked if he feels qualified to lead a team of 30,000 employees, with a budget of nearly 12 billion dollars, whose function is to provide public services to more than 2.8 million people, the ‘influencer’ responded:
“I have a successful and prosperous business that brings in more income every year, well managed. Several families live peacefully from my business, with the security that most Miami-Dade residents long for. I bring the experience of a person who has fallen, gotten up, tried again and succeeded. Furthermore, the fact that it comes from the people themselves, being part of them, having experienced what they live every day, creates a commitment that the traditional politician does not have.”
“Right now, we are in the hands of a government with all the experience in the world, a person who speaks all languages. However, we see an increasingly decadent Miami and increasing corruption. We see the plans for low-income people completely corrupt and the help they need never arrives.”
“My job will be to make the county run like a machine. I think the system is perfect, it is the politicians with their bad work who prevent its correct functioning.”
“Managing the county’s money is not a problem if it is done based on the needs of the people. I have appropriated a phrase said by the president of El Salvador Nayib Bukele, “when money is managed well and not stolen, it is enough”, we should apply that here in Miami-Dade.”
@menendezpryce
