CAMAGÜEY.- There is nothing fragile about that tremendous mulatta. She is all energy and goodness. She is an inexhaustible source of that "inexplicable" force that does not come from the strech-marked muscles, but from the cardio and the spirit. This force allows her to resist the burden of three land cavalries, one of which is devoted to several crops and to take care of cattle, rams, geese, chickens and ducks, without neglecting the house and the attention of her family. In the face of all that, her robustness is surprising.
Noralis Ramos Enamorado can be read on her identity card, but everyone in El Guayabo (a community located near the Central Highway, about five kilometers after the entrance to Jimaguayú towards the eastern region of the country) calls her Lili. Her obvious, obsessive and irreplaceable love for the countryside presumably came from her cradle, because ever since she can remember --still a little girl-- she needed to feel a piece of land of her own where she could safely plant her food at home.
For many years she kept a plot of land where she grew garlic, tomatoes, lettuce, among other vegetables, and alternated it with her job as a milker in a state-run cattle unit. When Decree-Law No. 259 gave her the possibility of acquiring land in usufruct, she did not even think twice about applying for it. Thus was born La Dunet farm, named after the "girl of her eyes" and the same for César Pérez Ulloa, her partner in life. By dint of sweat and toil it has become one of the most prosperous farms of the Evelio Rodríguez Credit and Service Cooperative (CCS for its initials in spanish), which stands out especially for its integrality, since it manages to collect significant volumes of food and fruit, as well as meat and milk.
"The work is hard, but when you like it...", she pauses for a long time and leaves the sentence in suspense because she knows that words are unecessary. The sparkle in her eyes and the pride with which she shows the visitor all that they have built together is enough to know that this is their world. "The farm belongs to both of us. When he is not here, I do everything: take care of the crops and the cattle". That happens most of the time because her husband works as a driver for the National Bus Service, makes trips to Havana, and sometimes stays away for up to a month.
"If he's at home, we share the work. Right now, he doesn't drive for COVID-19, and he mows the banana plantation while I pick the corn. He helps me, but I'm the one pushing. If it were up to him we would have moved to Camagüey, over my dead body. What am I supposed to do there without land? I have a schedule for everything and if the sun rises and I haven't been able to go out to the field, busy with the things in the house, I start to grumble. My daughter then says to me: 'but mom, why do you grumble if nobody demands that you arrive early? But I can’t stay still .Even though I get up every day at 4:00 a.m. to leave my breakfast and afternoon snack and left the lunch in advance.
In that place, every inch of the ground is used. Now they grow corn, yucca, banana, papaya, melon, sweet potato, squash-pumpkin and pineapple, and prepare conditions for planting beans.
"Planting guarantees us the family's food and we also deliver for the people who need it so much. In addition, we help the elderly of the community, the neighbors, and we send food to the school of Dunet, which is in Sibanicú. Bit by bit she has known the secrets of cattle breeding and the health of her 23 cows bows it. "When we started, I asked César to buy me a cow and he was surprised and said: 'my wife, instead of asking me to buy her a jean or a blouse, asks me for a cow. And of course I insisted and he bought me Dorita. She was gentle and good that little cow; she even let the little girl touch her udders. She died old aged here at the farm.
"Since we have the cattle, no of them has ever died of hunger or thirst. We prepare for the dry season with cane and king grass and with the waste from the plant. We always apply double milking very carefully so as not to affect the animals, which will allow us to deliver a little more than 8,000 liters of milk this year.
"We have done very well, we like the life we live and what we have achieved," assures the 'bus-driver/peasant', because she could not stay still for even for another minute and got up to her wanderings. "The heart, arms and eyes of this farm is Lili. Nobody doubts that. It is no coincidence then that for several years the members of the cooperative have recognized this tremendous mulatta as the best peasant of the 'Evelio'.
Translated by Mariam Heredia(Student)
Reviewed by Linet Acuña Quilez