Yusdenia Vázquez Domínguez, who resides in the community of Ramírez, in the municipality of Jobabo, is one of them. She is 33 years-old, mother of three children, and she found in manufacture of charcoal a source of employment for the sustenance of the family.
Her small stature and thin build were not impediments to leaving home a day decided to face the difficult task of making charcoal. Today she is not afraid of the rudeness of work, nor of the suffocating smoke, nor of the infernal mosquitoes besetting into the bush.
How did you start making charcoal?
It was due to the elder of my children is in High School, and he wanted to leave it because he felt inferior compared to other companions with more economic possibilities.
I said, you have to keep studying, I'm your mom, and I'll work to give you what you need. I went with my mother to the forest to make charcoal and to this day I keep working.
Did you have any experience?
I was listening to talk about it to some other women of my delegation of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), and I was embellished. We saw other chopping firewood and so we made the first batch that gave us 30 sacks. Thereupon we signed the contract with the Flora and Fauna Company and delivered our first charcoal.
How is the day of a charcoal burner?
I get up early in the morning, make breakfast, and send the children to school. Then I pick up the ax, and go to the forest, where we start chopping the wood; we load it to the place where we will make the oven: we put the guide, the firewood, the grass, throw earth and light the fire; when it opens the mouth, we put a wedge of sticks in pieces, we cover it and leave it burning until it ends.
Of course, we watch it day and night, because if it opens a mouth it can fly and we would lose the charcoal.
How difficult has this work been for you?
At first I found it very difficult; I arrived very exhausted at home to the point that I did not want to sweep. But I am already adapted. If I do not go one day I feel bad, I go and come, I do everything.
I am no longer afraid about cutting marabou neither the smoke; it is a job like any other.
How much has your life changed after working in charcoal production?
I did not worry about my appearance, not arranging my hair or my nails. One day the provincial secretary of the Women Federation visited us and told us that we had to get nice to go work. I told the other women in my community that we had to look pretty so that the marabou would fall in love with us, and they liked the idea.
Economically it has helped me a lot, there are fortnights that I deliver a ton and I earn around 1, 200 pesos, which facilitates the sustenance of my children.
Charcoal has really changed my life. I have told other women to join this task. They just have to get used to the work and will see how their life and that of their family will change.
How long do you plan to continue?
Until God wants and until I can, because I like to make charcoal and I feel good with the result of my work.
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