For some time, Leonor Bello Farreño has suffered from health problems that cause severe discomfort in her back and especially in her spine. But, given the presence in Cuba of the COVID-19 disease, she decided to put aside her pain to protect himself and also, her neighbors from Cerro de Caisimú, in the municipality of Manatí.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- «First I took a sheet from those I had in the house and when people found out they helped me with scraps of fabric to make their masks. They brought me from the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR)and from other organizations. Many collaborated."
Are you able to meet everyone?
“More or less. It is that people are worried. They want one, two, three, and even four because they know that they have to be sterilized and changed every so often. I also looked for many pieces of the ones I kept; but, the truth is that I cannot cope."
How are your days?
"Well, I almost always go to bed late and get up early. I do the house chores fast. I spend a lot of time sewing. I'm always on the machine making the masks."
Do you give them away or you ask for a payment?
«I give many - this reporter knows it well-; others I charge them at cost. I try to please those who trust me. Whoever wants it wide and flat, that's how I sew it. And I also make them from a single pair of suspenders, which they call chicken beak. Depending on how they ask me, I worry about making them. There are those who want them white and others, dark, for example, the peasants who work the land and make them very dirty.”
Do you feel satisfaction?
"Of course; and I am honored because they send them to me. That helps protect the people. A few days ago one passed by and I told him that, if he didn't have one, he would come and get a free gift. Here we have to praise the leaders of the organizations in El Cerro because they are always insisting that people protect themselves.
We must be proud. Here they care about the people. It is true that we have to commend this country. Sometimes we think about the family we have in other lands and we are proud of the health of the country. The one that goes wrong is because he does not obey the instructions.”
Tearfully, she tells of her son who today resides abroad, and despite the lump in his throat, a question is imposed.
Will you continue making masks?
"Yes. As long as someone needs it, my answer is yes.”
