For more than 30 years, Chucho, as he is widely known, has worked at the Doctor Ernesto Guevara Hospital, the main health institution in Las Tunas, which celebrates its 45th anniversary on June 14.

That morning, the weight of nostalgia made him feel unwell. It was his first day out of Cuba, and even the taste of water reminded him of his native Chaparra. Seconds later, a child with a complex clinical picture crossed the threshold of the hospital.
In his arms, he began a convulsion that activated the medical team. There, Jesús Ramón Chacón Ávila put aside distractions.

Two hours later, the little boy was already being fed in a room, and his mother was crying with emotion because she had somehow assumed that the infant's illness would seriously affect his thin body. She was crying out of gratitude to the medical mission in Bolivia.

They came from a mountainous region with very difficult access, where health was a privilege that only a few could afford. Convulsions were synonymous with death, with goodbyes. That exchange of knowledge and goodwill had an impact on the indigenous mother. The Cuban nurse could not help but be moved. He recalled that it was that urgency to help that made him wear white in the first place.

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To talk to Chucho, as half of Ernesto Guevara Hospital knows him, is to steal precious minutes from his function of directing outpatient and ambulatory services at the largest medical institution in the province. He has more than 30 years of service under his uniform, and he takes pride in doing good as a philosophy of life.

It is not strange that when he was a boy, he wanted to study law because the legal seal came very naturally to him, but when there was a massive call to study nursing due to the need to support the Public Health services, he did not think too much about it. "There I went."

"I was placed in the General Surgery A3 ward. I remember that in 1989 an Intermediate Therapy cubicle was inaugurated; they chose the best nurses and, with great pride, I began to work in that complex front."

"Doing good for me is everything. That is why I chose the profession, and it has not been easy. I really enjoy teaching the new generations. And I am very demanding. So much so that sometimes I get angry. I tell them that their job is not to sell potatoes or rice, that they work with sensitivity, and that a bad answer can leave marks on that soul, which is already in trouble; otherwise, it would not come to the hospital."

He recounts with memories that he was also selected to be part of the Neurosurgery service, a strong team that even committed him to the union section and strengthened him with another family.

"I have enjoyed it a lot and I have learned in each service. I was then transferred to Angiology; I worked as head of the ward. In 2000, I returned to Neurosurgery. My credo is that life is about constant learning, and challenges make you a better professional and a better person."

Red for modesty, he confesses that he has been chosen, on several occasions, as the best nurse, and has been National Vanguard several times. "In my generation, that pride still weighs heavily, but one does not work for recognition, but for the people, for humanity."

Not only has Bolivia counted on his firm steps. Being part of the Henry Reeve Brigade, he arrived in Mexico after the 2017 earthquake in Oaxaca as its head nurse. He recalls that perhaps like never before, dealing with so much wreckage and death, upended him as a professional and endowed him with much more empathy.

"Those were very difficult days, with more than 500 consultations, with patients of all kinds. My job was also to organize, but I never left aside the assistance part, which is what I enjoy the most. The days were endless because a week after the earthquake, there were still people trapped."

"In 2021, I traveled to Angola to carry out a somewhat quieter mission, but still in high demand. There you carry the prestige of Cuba on your shoes, and you have to be up to the task."

Chucho is loved at the "Guevara". His master's degree in Satisfactory Longevity has had an impact on services. Today, he debates as an assistant professor and tireless researcher, and his goals push upwards.

"I have responsibilities as a teacher, administrative, but I am deprived of patient management, updating protocols; I can't forget that... Being by someone's side, calming them down when they have to undergo a complex procedure, giving them strength, optimism, and a feeling that they are counting on you, are the true rewards of the profession. And it hits so deep that one becomes committed, forever."