CAMAGÜEY.- “The executives are not formed by themselves, by inspiration. Today it is necessary to look for practical formulas to accomplish perfectionism, because authority alone gives you credit before your subordinates. You win authority for the abilities you show and the actitude that you have, and mainly, the importance you give to the bonds with the base community. But this also involves the new generations. Today, young people develop in a different environment, with conditions we did not have in our formation, like going to do volunteer work, country school and other impact tasks. This formation tasks need to be recovered in the current times”.
Isnel Pérez Cepero is a teacher to the bone. He speaks slowly and has an exact, unadorned memory. His way through the education sector in the province, specially in the municipality of Camagüey, marked prosperous stages that we can see today in the formation of numerous professionals, and still government executives and party member that he mentored.
When in our recent exchange in the comfortable living room of his home, in Garrido neighborhood, when going through the pages of his life, his origin as farmer from Tamarindo unavoidably emerged. I confess that I still remember Tamarindo as a people of cowboys. Wooden constructions, broad porches, barns and a dusty road close to the Southeast exit of Sierra Jatibonico, that is why when Isnel tells me he is from Tamarindo, near the municipality of Florencia, I remembered images from a place I have not visited in a very long time.
I did not have a prepared schedule for the talk. I hate the protocol interviews of questions and answers as exact as preconceived for history. I prefer the free will of the speaker, where they surely feel more comfortable. That was the case of the encounter with Isnel, that at the beginning was already telling how he went from Tamarindo to Camagüey when he had no idea of staying in the Education sector for 50 years.
“In fact, I wanted to be an agronomist. Figure that, I have been a farmer from my birth, but first I had to be a farming teacher, that is why by 1960, after the rural schools, I entered the Provincial Agriculture School. I did not have anything else in mind but to return to the fields. But It were decisive years for the country and, of course, for young people. Fidel summoned to cover the classrooms in the mountain areas of the country. I did not think it twice and I went to Sierra Maestra; later to Isla de Pinos, where I was part of the Alphabetization Campaign; then to Moa; then to Santa Catalina de Sagüa and at the age of 20 I was the municipal director of San Luis, in Tercer Frente. I have been a teacher ever since”.
With the maelstrom of those unrepeatable years, the young teacher was send to Camagüey city to assume in 1969 the provincial sub-direction of Education. Isnel was then 24 years old. In 1976 he was elected delegate to the Municipal assembly of the People’s Power in Camagüey, managing during this period several government responsibilities, such as the presidency of the Government in the municipality.
“I have had many personal hard times. To decide for teaching was one of them. To go to work to Sierra Maestra with no experience. To take direction positions being so young; however, among the task I have assumed, the most complex one was to be president of the Government in Camagüey. That is another story, because I did it in a moment that, by decisions of the Government, a group of colleagues that work with me were substituted”.
“Between the years ‘88 and ‘92 I was in charge of the direction of the country per-universitary schools, there were some organization problems. Figure that. Back then we had 19 teaching centers and thousands of students in a huge program of the Country Schools. At the end, we managed to control the situation with positive outcomes”.
The experience as teacher and the ideas learned from those who were examples to them, allowed this young teacher to devote over half a century to the education of useful citizens for the country.
Isnel developed both the teaching in the classrooms and new functions within the provincial sub-direction of Education, the Secretary of the Municipal Management Council, the direction of a Light Industry Company, the vice-presidency of the Goverment in the province to look after the entire Economy System in the Management Council. “I was there for five years, until the Mined petitioned that I was send to Venezuela as an finance consultant, and on the way back I retook the provincial sub-direction of Education, task that I retired of at 65 years old.
“You ask about my family all those years. Well, that is another subject, but basically, you have to combine the attention to the family. I have four children, hardworking and professionals. I was married three times, which means that I could not always give my family the attention I wanted to give them. Back in those years we left at dawn and came back late… things do not work if there is no understanding. My satisfaction is the result of work. To feel a teacher wherever I was, to work and know wonderful colleagues that I respect, among them Luis Esteban Peña, who passed away; Alberto Salas, who was Provincial Director and headed the Education in Sierra de Cubitas, and in the Government, Juan Antonio Bravo Méndez, first president of the Provincial Assembly and great colleague, whose instructions helped me a lot in my work in the direction”.
- Translated by Elianna Díaz Mendieta
