Ernestina, an old lady, is popular among her relatives and neighbors because of the nobility of her acts. "I'm going to give you a cup of coffee," she tells a tired fumigator. "Would you like some cold water?" she asks a sweaty walker. She doesn't need to know them to proceed that way. In her noble octogenarian life, she's lived on the principle that "do good and don't look at who."
Las Tunas, Cuba.- Now that the coronavirus threatens to disturb our peace, the old woman decided to face it from solidarity. Thus, she opened her drawers and took out from inside her every piece of cloth or piece of idle clothing that was put at her disposal. Then she measured, cut, and sat down in front of her old sewing machine and did not give up her pedals until the last stitch was done.
Since then, every family in her building has had their masks "made in Ernestina", as she jokingly labeled them. She personally distributed them door to door, along with the warning that this was a measure of elementary protection. "We must all use it, no matter how old we are," she exhorted, with her own on. "If we cooperate and are disciplined, we win the fight."
Demonstrations of cooperation of this kind are not uncommon in Cuba. Around here, we have turned solidarity into the credential that identifies us. For us, that word has a broader semantic field than that conferred by the dictionary. And, when we allude to its goodness, we do not do so from a material perspective, because we think that it is in spirituality where authentic philanthropy lives.
During these days of intense information campaign and prevention actions against the COVID-19, I notice how people have become aware of its dangerousness and avoid committing acts that favor its propagation. "Change your daughter's 15th birthday party for later," I heard a father suggest. It will be better when this is over. It's not convenient now."
The perception of risk is also corroborated by people meeting or saying goodbye. They are aware that physical contact can be contagious, they wisely avoid kissing and hugging, both of which are contraindicated in current health circumstances. Parents repeat this to their children and explain to them that affection can be demonstrated with less effusive formulas.
Regarding the stalking of COVID-19, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, our president, has said that "the serenity, discipline, sense of responsibility, collaboration and solidarity that are inherent to Cubans can help prevent its spread and avoid its transmission. Furthermore, that "the victory that will await us lies in whether we take seriously and without panic the mission of protecting ourselves and contributing to the protection of the world.
And that is precisely what it is about: armoring ourselves with collective attitudes in the face of the threat of the virus and helping countries suffering its lethal effects with our experience. Cuba's internationalist vocation is called upon in such cases. It will never do as the ostrich, which hides its head in the sand so as not to see what is happening around it.
For decades, tens of thousands of compatriots have shown their solidarity in places like the Sahara desert, the mountains of Pakistan, African villages, the jungles of Central America and the hills of Caracas. Frozen by the cold or sweating like in a desert; with the danger of contracting a disease hanging over them like the Sword of Damocles; with a longing for family and for the land; inserted in different cultural contexts...
The medical collaborators who have just left for various places to fight against the COVID-19 confirm that Cuba does not only look inwards because Martí taught it that Homeland is humanity. While they highlight the nobility of the untamed island, here there are still people like Ernestina, helping their neighbors and erecting every day a humble monument to solidarity.
