This May 17, Guillermo Guevara Cabrera has many reasons to celebrate. However, it will be a day like others in the many years that he has lived because, with the same enthusiasm as always, he will get up around 2:00 in the morning.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- Illuminated by the light of the moon, and by his instinct as an old peasant, he will go -after the first drink of coffee- to the pens to milk the cows, those with which he obtains his daily sustenance and make him feel proud because many children are feed.
Cuba celebrates the Day of the Peasant, and for Guillermo, each awakening is a reason for festivity. He has what he needs to eat and rest together with his wife, also a worker at the Calixto Sarduy agricultural production cooperative, in the community of Becerra, in the municipality of Las Tunas.
“I have been working with livestock for 36 years, and milking about 20 cows every day. And in that time I have not taken any vacations, only on days of some illness problem. I really like what I do and even more so now, with this situation of the pandemic.
“In these times, it is very important to work in livestock and produce milk and meat. If we did not do it, we would have to buy the milk abroad and it would be a huge expense for the country.”
Guillermo says that he has adapted to the early mornings and the days of intense work; working has become essential in his daily life.
“We are here, trying to give everything in this difficult moment that Cuba is experiencing, with the disease and the blockade. Oh, and with the very rough drought. But we are braver than the lack of rain. We spend the hours feeding the calves and giving the cows the plants that are their food, especially mulberry, moringa, and sugarcane.
"We try not to lack water and that has worked for us because we have low mortality."
He takes care of his health, and especially of the hands that press the udders again and again, in search of the important food that sometimes goes directly to the local store, or it is stored in the cooling thermos until it moves into the dairy industry.
He knows himself useful and, with that security as a reward, he celebrates his status as a peasant at every dawn. He is happy since he gets out of his bed at that time when even the roosters sleep.
