I'm trying to guess his emotions from this side of the world. His parsimonious, sincere and affective voice draws him close to me. After an existential calendar dedicated to Otolaryngology, this Cuban living in Ecuador gives life to paintings that speak of breath, life and nature.

Now that the COVID-19 has invaded us and the longing for this island is surfacing in several of his children overseas, to meet again with stories like those of Julio Adalberto Lorenzo Santos, 76 years old, is an incentive. If you want to know why, please read these lines.

- Let's talk about your childhood

“I was born on a farm near the small town of Martí, in the province of Camagüey. I spent my first studies there and at the age of 15, I moved to Havana, where I began to work as a weaver, while I was in high school at night. After Senior High School I entered the University to study medicine. I did my postgraduate studies for a year in Nuevitas and two years in Guáimaro, then I finished my specialization in Otolaryngology, and I went to Las Tunas for a few years."

- What do you remember about that time in the Balcony of Eastern Cuba?

“At that time, I helped to train other doctors, along with the prestigious Dr. Carmen Comas. When I came to Las Tunas the Department of Otolaryngology was not a teaching department, we contributed to that step. That is how the first specialists in the province graduated, because before that people had to do the specialty in Holguin. When the Teaching Department was created, they were professionals even from Santiago de Cuba and specialists such as Marcia Cuervo, Israel Tamayo, and others began to emerge.

“I was the tutor of Marcia Cuervo's thesis, had a lot of interaction with the school for deaf children (today is known as the Ramon Téllez special school, for blind and hard of hearing children) and participated in the creation of the Department of Hearing Prosthesis for Children and Adults. With this center, they no longer had to go to Holguín to carry out these procedures.

“In fact, the most beautiful moments of my career were lived in Las Tunas, when I put a hearing aid on a child. It was wonderful to see his face, at first they cried, but when they realized they were hearing for the first time, it was immense their joy."

“Within my specialty, I am a child and adult audiologist. I even did research based on data collected in Havana, Las Tunas and Africa, on the most important causes of hearing loss in infants. The results were different in each case. In the eastern province, it was antibiotics and infectious diseases, although there were also those of a hereditary nature. Of course, at that time."

- You served two years in Guinea-Bissau, Africa. Tell me about that time.

“At the time I worked there, there was a cholera epidemic and it was terrible, we hardly had any rest. I lived there the saddest moment of my career, because once there was no pediatrician to stand guard and we had to take over. A 9-year-old boy arrived with cerebral malaria, convulsing, and as there was no medicine to treat him, I saw him die in front of me without being able to do anything, with a terrible feeling of helplessness. I don't forget that”.

- Besides being a specialist in First Degree in Otorhinolaryngology and an assistant professor, you held positions in your career, especially in Havana, Cuba.

“When I worked at the Miguel Enríquez General Teaching Hospital, I was head of service from 1989 to 2000. Then I fell in love with an Ecuadorian woman and came to her country. Since then I am in Guayaquil”.

- How has the practice of your profession been in that sister land?

"First I worked in a foundation with deaf-mute children. There I operated hyperbaric oxygenation machines, because I am also a hyperbaric specialist. At that time, I discovered my interest in painting. Here I taught audiology and speech pathology."

"Although there are different things. The Cuban doctor sees patients in front of him, in paid medicine they are clients. In my case, I did good, I treated people who have no money without charging them anything."

"I have already retired, since I am 76 years old and have kidney failure; I must take care of myself. So I have spent the pandemic at home."

- What are the requirements to practice your specialty?

"To feel love and enjoy it. I remember that I spent three hours operating on one ear and I didn't get tired because I was doing what I liked. You have to have a vocation and study hard, and learn from all the teachers, because everyone has their own little book and in the end you can make your own."

"Our professional responsibility is important. For example, when the child does not develop speech because he does not hear it, thanks to the hearing aid you give him back his hearing or part of it (in addition to the speech therapists and Special Education, which are important) and it is gratifying to know that we influence his better insertion into society."

"For me, medicine has been something very beautiful, if I take into account all that this little guy has achieved, I feel proud of myself."

- Not every good professional has the ability to link up with teaching. What has that edge meant to you?

"I had wonderful teachers like Horacio Escobar, who taught with love, they were my examples. I remember that the first time I stood in front of the students I was a little inhibited until I lost my stage fright. I have always tried to make the classes as enjoyable as possible to get the students' attention, because you love your profession and you want others to feel that way."

- And how did you develop your artistic side?

"In my family, there's no cartoonist, even I used to paint badly. It all started when I was working in the hyperbaric chamber, which I had some time left, and I started to paint faces with charcoal, then I experimented with oil, which today is my favorite. Then I took classes with teachers, until May last year, when I presented the exhibition “Amigos no amigos” (Friends not friends), with 42 works, in the activities of the cultural center of Guayaquil, and it was well-received."

- What do you like to transmit with your painting?

"An expression, that's why I look for people and animals. If I paint a landscape, for example, I try to make it lively. Now that I'm not in the Otorhinolaryngology business, it's nice to have something to entertain yourself with and to have goals to live for in old age. That's important. I dream of going back to Cuba and having an exhibition there."

- Although you are not directly linked to the health sector, I would like to hear your opinion on how the new coronavirus is being experienced there and your advice to the population.

"In Guayaquil, you see people who don't leave their homes and take care of themselves as well as others playing baseball in the street. And there have been many cases. The professionals in my specialty are the ones who have to take the most care, because with the COVID-19 there are people who lose their taste and smell and where they first go is to the otolaryngologist."

I advise people to take care of themselves, stay at home and wash their hands constantly. All care is little".

Julio is the youngest of seven siblings, but only two remain alive and one of them is in Cuba. His dog Mite, a faithful chihuahua, accompanies him in these times of quarantine and makes him overcome the longing for Cuba while he sings La Guantanamera.

With his life experience, already at the close of our dialogue, he shares a valuable suggestion: “Don't hurt anyone, the evil is reversed. It is better that the good be reversed. As I have done well, I have always been happy”.