Alexander Otaola
Alexander Otaola Casal is a Cuban-American social media influencer, comedian and political activist. Otaola is the host of the web show Hola Ota-Ola!, an informative and satirical program that covers entertainment, news and politics. His show debuted on Cubanos por el Mundo, a cross platform media initiative, website, and YouTube channel that covers politics, news, and celebrity culture in Cuba and the Cuban exile community. Otaola is a vocal opponent of the communist Cuban government and its human rights violations and crimes. In 2023, Otaola registered his candidacy to run in the 2024 Miami-Dade County mayoral election. He came in third in the election, garnering less than 12% of the total vote.
Biography
Otaola was born in Camagüey, Cuba, on April 28, 1979. For secondary school, he studied at a special athletic school in Cuba known as ESPA where he trained in water polo, horse riding, chess and ended up in gymnastics and musical aerobics. In an interview with CiberCuba, Otaola said he was born in a society with a culture often favoring a strong sense of masculinity and experienced bullying and homophobia in Cuba.On December 3, 2003, Otaola emigrated to the United States from Cuba after obtaining a visa. He settled in Miami where he worked as a waiter, cashier at Walmart, baker, and a manager in a housekeeping business.
In 2008, he returned to television and worked in telenovelas and comedy shows. He portrayed the character "Carlos Recto" in the MEGATV show Esta Noche Tu Night hosted by Alexis Valdés, and also participated in a Venevision talk show called ¿Quién Tiene la Razón? Later in 2015, he was suspended by the television network Mega TV for using an obscene word during an interview. In 2017, he started webcasting his show Hola Ota-Ola!, which has a large audience in Cuba and the United States.
Political activism
Otaola has organized boycotts on Cuban artists such as Haila Mompié, Jacob Forever, El Micha, and Gente de Zona which has resulted in their shows being canceled in Miami. As a result of his social media activism, Haila Mompié was declared persona non grata in the city of Miami by the mayor Francis Suarez.In 2019, Otaola criticized the daughter of Raúl Castro, Mariela Castro, for canceling the annual gay pride parade in Cuba and failing to protect gay rights activists from violence by Cuban security forces.
On social media, Otaola has attempted to uncover Ciberclarias, which he claims are false profiles that spread propaganda for the Cuban government.
On February 29, 2020, Otaola organized a caravan in Calle Ocho, Miami, for the liberation of Cuba, the release of political prisoners in Cuba, and to support the Trump administration's policies on Cuba. According to the Miami Herald, the caravan consisted in as many as 2,000 cars. Following the car caravan to condemn the Cuban regime, Otaola congregated a second caravan to support "law, order, and peace."
During the George Floyd protests, Otaola joined the BlackTuesday campaign on Instagram in support of black victims of police violence and added the hashtag #AllLivesMatter. Otaola said on his show: "If we are going to fight racism, it is not by segregating or separating into races that we are going to achieve it". He also said the murder of George Floyd was not justified and the police officer kneeling on his neck should be punished. He also expressed his belief that mainstream media and the left were trying to promote vandalism and portray Floyd like a hero.