CAMAGÜEY.- When she, very young, got sick and was treated in Havana as a demonstration in a Medicine class, Nieves Atrio knew: she would be a doctor. She was in the 1950s and her father told her that only “elite” young people studied this. On the contrary, her mother collected penny by penny to fulfill her little girl's dream, money that would not have that purpose with the triumph of the Revolution.
“I began my medical studies in 1963, I was the founder of “Victoria de Girón”, a school created for the training of doctors based on the country's needs. We spent two years at the center, and then we went to the hospitals in Havana until we graduated in '68. At that time there was a lack of specialists in the country, so I did an internship in Dermatology.”
—How were your beginnings as a dermatologist?
—In Ciego de Ávila, at that time, the only one who served as a dermatologist was me. We did not have transportation and we traveled by our own means to give consultations in other territories. I was leaving on a bus at 6:00 a.m. for Baraguá, and at 1:00 p.m. I already had to return to Ciego de Ávila.
She excitedly talks about the people's cooperation with the doctors. “Many times the consultation in the municipality had not finished, and the hospital administrator called the bus terminal and the transport left only when I was there.
“Once a week I went to Jatibonico. There was no bus there, a train left from Guantánamo and when it arrived in Ciego it was already full. Then the head of the station would open the luggage car for me and there, sitting on a box, I would travel to give my consultation.”
Already in Camagüey, Nieves began the specialty of Dermatology at the Manuel Ascunce Domenech hospital. “The only professor at that time was Dr. Llanos Clavería, who assumed the responsibility of training the new specialists in the province, and to whom I owe a lot. We worked during the day and studied at night. We gave consultations and kept the most difficult cases for the teacher, he explained to us and we continued our teaching.”
She was one of the country's first internationalists. Can you tell us about that side of Dr. Nieves?
—In the years '75 and '76 I was in Algeria, among the first people from Camagüey to fulfill a mission there. Then there were fewer of us, and we weren't going for money. The Commander in Chief once asked us to give up private consultations; our function was to study and save lives, and we applied the same thing in that country. We didn't lack anything either, they guaranteed us food, clothing, and we visited several places.
“In Algeria there are very different customs from our country. The same Algerian women asked me how I could walk hand in hand with my husband on the street; there, very little value is given to women.”
In 2008 she returned to fulfill her internationalist mission, although with other characteristics. She, along with a larger group of doctors, assumes this responsibility in Angola. “It caught our attention that Angolans revere Cubans a lot, they feel a lot of admiration for us.”
—You stand out for your work in the leprosy and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) care program.
—In 1979 I started working at the Hygiene and Epidemiology Center, where I currently work, attending to that program. I was at the inauguration of the AIDS Sanatorium. At that time I was the head of the Dermatology group and they asked me for a specialist. I understood that, since it was an unknown disease, I had to assume this responsibility. I had a consultation once a week.
“In relation to the leprosy program I did my doctoral thesis in 2013. It has been my life, my field of research since I started working. Because of my age, they proposed that I serve as an advisor for this program, and now I work in the training of new professionals.”
In her memories she keeps the meetings with Commander in Chief Fidel Castro: “He inaugurated the school and promised us that he would attend the graduation. When we finished the last exams, we all went to our provinces. Then they summoned us for voluntary work, apparently it was the way the Commander found to accompany us.”
At 77 years old she continues as a consulting teacher and as an advisor to the leprosy program, which, she assures, is part of her heart. She recognizes that when you love what you do, every case is important. “Patients with complications become worries, they become your family.”
Nieves Atrio Mouriño constitutes a synthesis of Cuban medicine, of that quality of knowing that one is necessary anywhere. She is one of the first doctors trained by the Revolution, one of the first internationalists of our Camagüey. Inspired, she that little girl became the inspirer of many other dreams, because Nieves, the patient at that time, is today a Cuban doctor.
Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez