La Jatía is a heifer development unit, surrounded by pastures rich in cattle and green pastures that welcome visitors. It is adjacent to the La Jibarera neighborhood, near Yariguá, and belongs to the Waldemar Membrado Basic Cooperative Production Unit (UBPC), in the municipality of Las Tunas.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- It consists of a modest and simple, but neat and well-kept dairy farm, which shows the commitment of a woman named Radelis Martínez Jiménez. She is the head of the unit, which also works with two guards and the milker Roberto Acosta Rodríguez, who personally is her husband for 14 years.
"This is a family place. There are four of us, but we push evenly in all the daily chores," says Radelis as she helps Roberto with a small calf, as he milks his recent mother who girdles when they touch her son.
"We like what we do and we struggle to get ahead. We have 194 head of cattle, including heifers, cows, and calves, and as you can see the pastures are nice, clean, and with good conditions for grazing. We also have several crops and areas planted with food for the animals.
He keeps an eye on the calf's mother, who, still tied by her hind legs, does not take her eyes off her son. When he releases her, she runs to her little one and moans, as a way of expressing her feelings.
The couple lives in their unit, in an adapted room, with a small but cozy living room, with pictures of the four children adorning the walls. In the kitchenette, Radelis brews coffee, bitter and strong, which is tasted by visitors sitting at the back of the house, in what used to be a milking area.
"I think it's good to be married and work in the same place because we have similar interests and we struggle together. Besides, Roberto with his experience helps me a lot and, even though I am the boss, the important thing is that we are all for the same thing; here we don't have to be bossing anyone around," Radelis expresses while looking at her husband, sitting next to her.
Roberto barely speaks. His thing is work, and right now he is thinking that he has to go to the corn and sweet potato fields.
"My thing is the fields, milking, working, I don't do well at talking. Radelis explains everything, she is a talker. What I can tell you is that we are doing very well, since we met. And in our work, we are one and that is why unity is moving forward."
La Jatía is a solitary, peaceful place. The silence of the field is only broken by the mooing of the nearest cattle, the singing of the birds, and the wind that, at times, stirs some parts of the unit, one of the best of the UBPC and a reference in the cattle breeding of the area, because there the heifers that arrive there grow healthy until they become cows, after 3 years of age and the second calving.
And in all these results the great protagonists are Radelis and Roberto, who with their drive every day achieve superior indicators in their management.
