The night is still very thick, with no shadows of dawn, when Belkis throws off her sheets and subtly leaves the room as if she does not want to warn the quietness of her home. She looks at the clock and it is 4:00 am. Almost by inertia, she unwinds in the kitchen. Then the aroma of her coffee, well charged, sneaks through the curtain and her husband opens his eyes like a spring. She tries to dissuade him: "Don't get up, stay in bed a little longer."

Las Tunas, Cuba.- She chooses, not without some zeal, the work clothes, the shirt that covers the neck well and at the same time is cool, the comfortable and somewhat tight pants, the boots to fight against the mud, and the hat. Then she defies her 56 years of age in front of the mirror, goes over her eyebrows, colors the contours of her eyes, and awakens the red in her smile, because "underneath her work clothes, she is herself and must take care of herself and look well groomed, even if you do not have visitors that day, and no one sees you."

It is a little after 6:00 a.m. and the first light of dawn discovers her in the ranch, alone she is now working in El Porvenir, her four-hectare farm, in usufruct, in La Islita, in the municipality of Jobabo. “Rosao” and “Sinsonte” notice her arrival from afar, they welcome her with strong breathing, and when she grabs the plow in her hands and pulls in that pair of oxen, "things flow marvelously". There's no stopping her until noon.

Since the day before, she knows what she has to do each day. When it's time to mow, the morning is longer, because she ends up with pain in her back and she looks at her hands a lot, under the gloves, red and very long nails stand up, protesting.

There is not an hour that she does not miss the presence of her husband on the farm, the conversation in the middle of the work, the shared jug of water, the two pairs of eyes lost in the animals that do not advance and in the trees that insist on delaying the fruits, "the sharpness of the old man to understand the land as if he were reading a book". But Belkis Almeida Cartaya can handle it all and dissuades her partner: "I need you more at home."

"When I arrive he has a hot lunch for me and has brought everything else forward, but I know that he would like to be lost in the furrows, he can't stand being inside those walls... It's been a while since he was diagnosed with weeds in his eyes and it's been difficult, but so far we are doing fine."

"When I need help because I'm going to sow or harvest, my relatives help me, there's always someone to give you a hand. The other thing is to plan the work well, to have control of each process, and not to be afraid of the field."

She confesses that she really enjoys handling animals. She has pigs, ducks, and turkeys, but his goats are his favorite. Little by little she has learned to make cheese and yogurt from the milk she collects and she assures us that you get surprised with the quality of these products. She dreams one day of advancing her herd so that she can become a producer and have a prosperous and recognized brand.

Right now, in El Porvenir, there are cassava, plantain, pumpkin, corn, sweet potato, sunflower, and millet crops. Lemon, mango, plum, and avocado bushes also decorate the environment and intermingle with other crops. "There is abundance because the health of the fruits tells you what the land is like, and the land is grateful."

Belkis doesn't wait for things to fall from the sky. In the afternoon she gets her hands on the corn, adds sunflower, and corn, starts grinding and in minutes she has the animal feed, a feed that guarantees that her pigs and other animals do not show their ribs, "with the skin sticking to the backbone."

Agroecology is exploited to the maximum on her farm. "It's been a while since I learned how to make compost and we have seen the results of applying organic material. There is nothing like bio-fertilizers, besides they save the country a lot of resources and we are assured of good yields."

With a frown, she assures us that not everything is a bed of roses because although she receives a lot of support from the Jorge Aleaga Credit and Services Cooperative (CCS, by its acronym in Spanish), the life of the farmer is hard. She tells of the shortage of essential inputs that hinder her better development.

"I am not afraid of the countryside, but I dislike the fact that working becomes a titanic task, that the tools do not cut and there is nothing to sharpen them with, that the same thing happens with hoes, machetes, that there is nowhere to buy gloves."

There, in the tranquility of her piece of land, the producer knows what is happening not only in Cuba but on the other side of the world. Technologies have shattered the distances between the countryside and the city, she does not feel isolated, she lives comfortably and her goals are to prosper in the same place where she learned from her father the love for the land and the animals, the commitment to produce.

When Belkis speaks of her community she does so with special pride, and in her speech is of course the worth of women farmers. "There are many people who think that in the countryside you depend on your husband, and it is true that the peasant woman is humble, and takes care of her house and her family; but she is also strong and has goals and resources to achieve her aspirations, because she knows what it means to work, and not to wait for anyone to give her anything."

Even when there is no lack of things to do in El Porvenir, there is always little time to support the home for the elderly of the community, to talk with the young people of the community, and to cooperate as a federated woman with the neighborhood and her own.

The longing for her daughter is another burden that grows heavier when night falls. Belkis tidies up the house, reviews in her head the chores for the next day, and goes to bed with her husband. The first minutes, before falling asleep, are a time of reckoning, of obligatory conversation, then the day's effort does its part and she finally falls asleep. No alarms are set. A few hours later the same routine will begin and she, almost by inertia, will put on her work boots again.