Kisii County has for the first time in its history a plastic surgeon, who is not there to satisfy the aesthetic whims of wealthy people, but to solve serious problems of patients, especially children. Photos: Courtesy of Dr. Damodar Peña Pentón

An anti-Cuban libel reproduces a story from the Las Tunas newspaper about a doctor from that province, a specialist in Reconstructive Surgery and Burns, who currently provides his services in Kisii, a county in the Republic of Kenya.

"It pleases me more than the sea." Kenya.- With the usual handling of a repetitive and inert vocabulary, it tells the doctor's surprise when he saw a boy named Fidel Castro on the list of patients. He is certainly not the only one in Kenya or the world; in fact, in Guatemala, 20 years ago, there was another one with the full name of the Commander in Chief followed by his sonorous Mayan surnames. Regardless of the fallacies with which it is intended to justify the supposed ignorance and naivety of the mother, the most important thing that reflects is the impotence in the face of a supreme reality: the peoples instinctively know what the truth is.

In the sea of indecencies and lies through which the dependent anti-Cuban reporters sail, in order not to use the word journalism, this would be one more drop without channel; however, when referring to Dr. Alberto Felipe Rignack Vaz, it mentions that he is "on a slave mission in Kenya".

And it is worth contrasting because it is an undeniable fact that Kisii County has for the first time in its history a plastic surgeon, who is not there to satisfy the aesthetic whims of wealthy people; but to solve serious patient problems, especially children, whose body and life were transformed by diseases or accidents, and without the presence of the Cuban doctor in a public hospital far from the capital, they would not have been able to improve or cure their ailments and injuries.

El Checo, as everyone in Las Tunas - and Cuba - calls him, has become a legend in the almost three years that he has been working there. He has earned the respect of his colleagues, of the authorities, and mainly of his patients, who adore him.

The day he learned of the transformation suffered by the news in his provincial newspaper, he had saved the life of a small Kenyan boy. He responded with a mischievous saying that his grandmother used to repeat, which begins with the phrase "al bagazo poco caso..." (little attention to bagasse...).” And as he has cast his lot with the poor of this land, he immediately recalled the immeasurable joy of his mother and expressed, from the deepest conviction of José Martí, "That huge grateful smile pleases me more than the sea.”