Arriving at the El Esfuerzo farm in the community of Laguna Blanca, municipality of Jesús Menéndez, makes you feel that if hard work is combined with a strong family life, nothing can completely bring you down.

“Jesús Menéndez”, Las Tunas.- We went there because we know that they have long been pioneers in environmentally friendly practices and were in the midst of installing the first wind turbine in northern Las Tunas, something that takes on greater importance given the complex energy situation that persists in Cuba.

Among them, everything is a family affair, which is why they delegated the task of describing the good news of the work to the eldest son, Rafael Alberto Santana, with a broad smile and confidence that his voice represents the efforts of all.

"It's just been installed, and I can tell you that it's already spinning in the air and hasn't stopped. It's a wind turbine that arrived here through a project by the Cuban Society for the Promotion of Renewable Energy Sources and Environmental Respect (Cubasolar, in Spanish). It has an electricity generation capacity of 5 kilowatts per hour, which is more than we consume, so we are waiting for the installation of a smart meter that will allow us to supply power from here to the National Electric Energy System (SEN in Spanish).

"It is an important backup to support the production of goat cheese and its derivatives, a small industry that we have been running for several years, and with which we support the nutrition of lactose-intolerant children in the municipality.

“With these blackouts, we have lost a lot of cheese, and now that is being resolved; the truth is that electricity has been the main cause of problems in our production.”

And not only that, with the help of Cubasolar, molds and presses for cheese production, as well as machines for making goat milk butter, have now arrived at the farm.

This is not the first time they have been involved in renewable energy projects. For more than seven years, they have been using a biodigester to pasteurize milk and have active solar panels to power their irrigation system.

Of course, we also talk about "Melissa," the powerful hurricane that marked the end of October and damaged their crops (especially the two hectares of corn at the bottom of the farm and the beans), and which other crops weathered more successfully.

The young wind turbine withstood the winds, spinning strongly throughout the night and early morning hours, as a sign of better times ahead.

They were still adjusting details when 26 arrived. They had barely managed to charge their cell phones and sleep through the blessed noise of the fans all night, but they were already getting the batteries ready that morning and their enthusiasm seemed renewed because, in addition to making life in the countryside more bearable, the “device” confirms the success of their hard work, which is steady, constant, and a family affair.