VERTIENTES, CAMAGÜEY-. Waiting for Yadi, I found her in her cozy house, there in the town Batalla de Las Guásimas. “My granddaughter had a test today, and she does not come yet, thanks that I already finished to wash, now, I will rest and wait for her”, she says when she receives me.
The girl, who studies the third year of Medicine, and Pablito, already in sixth grade, are her biggest treasures, fruit of loves lived by her two children, Maria del Carmen and Miguel Enrique.
I met Miriam Castillo Guerrero at my six years old, in the primary school of the community which name refers to the biggest fight that happened in the War of Ten Years.
It was, by fortune, who taught us the letters of the alphabet, one for one, up to managing to read and write; and clearly, also we learned with her the mathematics, which were so much liked in the classroom.
“Still being a pedagogic assistant, I assumed the challenge, not only that time with you, but many others, when some contingency happened with the designated teachers, and I have always had to attend on the first grade. So difficult”, - she exclaims - at the time that she counts a history that seems I have already lived through.
“I was finishing the secondary school when they offered the courses to be a popular teacher. That's when, I was living in Aguilar, where I was born. Immediately, I registered, and up to today, this is the profession of my life, although I am already retired”, reports Miriam.
This way it began the history of a life devoted to the noble and important art of educating, a history that lasts four decades and a half. “I was only 15 years old, imagine, with this age I surrendered to the work in the Aguilar´s small school. I began like teacher of preschool and I still remember several names. Every day I felt satisfied because I was going to teach the children.
“Some years later I came to Batalla and they received me in the semi-boarding shool. There I was around twenty years, until my retirement. But the history does not finish there, no: of course no!, the sixties are not a reason enough to remain in the house, I reincorporated and then I worked three courses at the educational center of the town of Concordia.
“The bad thing is that the knees began failing, because I was going on foot every day, there well, I had no other remedy”, she mentions on sad way.
- Satisfactions in these almost fifty years of work?
- I always felt happily for the successes that I was obtaining with the boys, especially because, even, being an educational assistant, I guided them and led to the contests, and we surely won. Whenever some teacher was trumping the director, he knew that he could count on me. They are, precisely the satisfactions, which never left me to go out of this sector.
“Here I have kept all my decorations and recognition, and I am still provided with the fondness of many that were my pupils, and today they are professional: for what more is it possible to ask?”, - she interrogates, already knowing the answer.
As I found her (waiting for her granddaughter, worth heiress of the grandmother), I say goodbye of her, proud of being able to interview Miriam, my first teacher.
Since Pablito began to go to the school, he counts with the support of his grandmother Miriam. "She is my best teacher", says the child. Since Pablito began to go to the school, he counts with the support of his grandmother Miriam. "She is my best teacher", says the child.
Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez