[4][9][10] In 2021, Bruguera departed Cuba in exchange for the Cuban government freeing activists imprisoned in that year after she got a job offer from Harvard University.

[12] Bruguera's 1997 work The Burden of Guilt (El peso de la culpa) was the artist's take on a story of mass suicide of a group of indigenous Cubans who have consumed large amounts of soil in order to show their resistance to the Spanish occupation.

[16][15][17] As Edward Rubin described it, "the harrowing piece was first performed in Havana, where the audience was duly reminded that freedom, liberty, and self-determination are not abstract ideals, but achievements that deeply inscribe their meaning on our physical being.

[18] This piece of work resembles the power figure ‘Nikis Nkonde’ and is supposed to draw attention to the empty promises the Cuban government made to its people during the revolution.

[20] "Using her position within this social milieu, Bruguera advanced the careers of her [Cátedra] students by exhibiting their artworks as her own participation in the Havana Bienal.

In order to enter Surplus Value, museum visitors waited in a long line, and they were required to pass a polygraph test about their visa applications.

To date, Bruguera has received 70 video responses from everyday Cubans expressing their desires to reform the corrupt government, include affordable housing, and improve their weak economy.

"[32] In 2021, the Pérez Art Museum Miami acquired Bruguera's work El peso de la culpa (The Burden of Guilt) as part of the institution's new acquisitions initiative.

The campaign arose after Raúl Castro and Barack Obama’s declarations on December 17, 2014[38][39] about  the restoration of diplomatic ties, potentially bringing an end to five decades of hostility.

The first arrests were made on Tuesday, December 30, after Bruguera announced a public performance with the intention of leaving an open microphone available to Cubans to allow them to freely express their thoughts.

[13] The event attracted widespread media coverage[41][42][43][44][45] both in favor and against her action and a public letter[46] in support of Tania addressed to Raúl Castro was written and signed by over a thousand people across the globe.

The letter stated: "We firmly believe her detention, and the withdrawal of her Cuban passport, are inappropriate responses to a work of art that simply sought to open space for public discussion."

She said that during the time of her detention she only agreed to leave under two conditions: that dissidents who were arrested after attending her aborted performance in Revolution Square be released; and that the Cuban government give her a signed and stamped letter guaranteeing that she could return to Cuba.

[51] Bruguera was arrested in December 2018 in advance of a planned protest against a Cuban law (Decree 349) that would require artists to apply for government licenses.

[54][55] However, her sister informed 'The Art Newspaper' that the Cuban authorities were keeping her under house arrest and they were building a penal case against the artist.