When Iraldo Ramírez Pérez started working in the pilgrimage of the people's councils and districts, his youngest daughter was barely 29 days old; she is now a full-fledged woman and has even given him a granddaughter who is a doctor.

Las Tunas, Cuba: For him that is the greatest proof of the passage of time. And his eyes sparkle as he says: "I have dedicated my whole life to this here"; with his straightforward verb and his bicycle close by, because he is 77 years old and his legs still do not tremble when he rides from Río Ramírez to Buenaventura, determined.

"Here there was nothing at all, I assure you, the only thing we had was weeds; we had no electricity, no shop, and just a little old school that was nothing like the comfortable one that now belongs to our pioneers.

"People say that we are in another Special Period and I assure you that anyone who says that did not live in these lands in the 90s of the last century. Things are very expensive, but they appear; before, not even that. And life was much more difficult here.

Iraldo told 26 that the main dissatisfaction of the population currently revolves around the water situation, as the intense drought suffered by these places left almost all the wells there without water, and it has been months of hard work with this issue.

He knows every detail about the whole area of Río Ramírez. He is concerned that some of the wells are becoming brackish at this time of year and, when talking about him, everyone has something to say because they know of his longstanding efforts and his word, which he is committed to doing.