Knowing to be a woman is an honor, and pride grows when the work of life is recognized.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- This is the feeling of many of the women of our country and, in the province, many of them know they continue the perennial work of the Revolution. Bertha Luz Rodríguez López is one of them. She was granted the honorific title of Labor Heroine of the Republic of Cuba three years ago.
Her work for 53 years in the educational sector, of which she devoted 33 to teaching students at the Carlos Leyva Sports Initiation School (EIDE), was the reason for her to receive the distinction, becoming the first woman in the sector to obtain such a high award.
Studying Medicine was her greatest dream, which was stopped due to a need in the country: “I was a member of the Rebel Youth Association, and the Commander in Chief requested for us to join the study of pedagogical careers due to the lack of teachers in the country in those years.
“Then I joined the Manuel Ascunce Domenech Pedagogical Detachment, of which I feel proud and happy because walking down the street or arriving at a certain institution and being recognized and greeted by those who were once my students is an honor for me," she says excitedly.
Her life in the classroom was not a sacrifice, but her way of demonstrating her commitment to the creative work of the Revolution.
A founder of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) and the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), she feels a greater inclination for the latter.
“I was a literacy teacher and I always had the recognition of keeping my area among the first blocks of the FMC in the province on the educational front; the reason that allowed me to receive all the awards and decorations granted by the organization”.
Bertha Luz turned 74 years old last May, and she counts among her greatest achievements being recognized as a Biology teacher. Feeling useful is one of her premises, which is why she decided to return to work in 2019 after her retirement, at which time she was decorated as Labor Heroine.
“The medal was given to me by José Ramón Machado Ventura and I was very happy; I had finally accomplished the goal that I had set for myself for so many years. But my greatest desire was to receive it from the hands of our Commander, who, although is no longer among us, I knew he would be proud of me and what I had achieved at the hands of him and this Revolution”.
“In the two and a half years of the COVID-19 pandemic, our willingness was demonstrated in the work carried out by women -says Bertha Luz-, both housewives and workers, who took the lead and did what was necessary.
She is, without a doubt, an example of what feminine determination can achieve.
