LOS ANGELES — While most Angelenos were still fast asleep, Jason Canela left his North Hollywood home at 5 a.m. on a Sunday — just in time to organize a mass demonstration in support of his family in Cuba.

For days, Canela — an actor and first-generation Cuban-American — has been working around the clock, applying for rally permits, organizing busses and live-streaming to his more than 300,000 Instagram followers, hoping to push for more freedom in Cuba.

“The Cuban regime has been in power for 60-plus years and all at the cost of the lives of thousands and thousands of innocent Cuban people who sadly have never known what freedom is,” said Canela.

On July 11, Cubans took to the streets to protest the lack of food and medicine in the biggest anti-government demonstrations on the island since 1959. The protests erupted amid Cuba's worst economic crisis in decades and a record surge in COVID-19 infections.

“The reality is that you’re talking about people who...they only live off of what they can get from family outside,” Canela said.

Protesters recently marched from Pershing Square to City Hall in downtown Los Angeles, where they held a rally urging the U.S. government to take action.

On Friday, the Biden administration imposed new sanctions on Cuban police and its leaders after the government there cracked down on protesters. More than 700 people have been arrested.

Marilyn Jones says she hasn’t heard from her uncle and cousins despite several attempts.

“I’m worried about them,” she said. “I feel terrible. My family suffers from illnesses, and right now, there is no medications.”

For Canela, it’s about answering the Cuban people’s call for freedom. 

“Sadly this isn’t the type of situation where you can throw money and fix it, which is why it’s so important for us to actually to use our voices, use our bodies and just spread awareness.”