Yusbiel Silva did not expect the question and remained silent for a moment. He looks at his green rice field and walks slowly across the horizon as if caressing with his eyes the water that bathes his crop, the one that gives him so much peace.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- "Working in these lands where I used to play ball as a boy gives me great joy, because I see the yield of an area that used to serve us for games, but did not produce, and in which today I have been able to harvest tons of food," he says with pride in his eyes.
"I have also had a lot of satisfaction, because older people, who used to see me as a boy running around these pastures, now look at me with a certain respect for what I have achieved in these lands that have been idle for a long time and that have great quality."
This 34-year-old man was born in the same place where he lives today. Son of peasants, his father, and grandfather were good producers in the area, so when he finished his Active Military Service and the Armed Forces offered him the possibility of acquiring usufruct land, he did not hesitate to return to his origins.
"I could have continued my career as a military man, but I could not miss the chance to follow the path of my father and grandfather, besides the fact that I like being a farmer, producing rice, various crops, in these same lands where I was born and grew up. Today the results are very good."
As a member of the José Mastrapa agricultural production cooperative, the volumes of food that Yusbiel has delivered to the State in these 13 years are remarkable.
"In all this time I have had very good experiences in the furrow, the economy has grown for my family, my children, because my harvests have always been excellent and I have known how to take advantage of the good times. The sacrifice is indeed great, but that is compensated by the results."
Yusbiel Silva is proud to work in the same land where he grew up. And he is grateful to the Revolutionary Armed Forces that made it possible for him to return, besides the fact that in the Army he learned that food production is a vital task, a matter of national security.
