Life and its whims. Just when it seemed that we would end 2025 knowing all our enemies, with no surprises: blockade, inflation, blackouts, food and medicine shortages, mountains of solid waste... a virus with a strange name and traumatic effects appeared, keeping us in check and putting the value of an environment free of invasive mosquitoes at the top of our list.

Families in Las Tunas are now marked by chikungunya and its immobilizing and painful aftermath. “It never ends,” someone might say, and they would be absolutely right. The economic crisis the country is experiencing eats away at everyday life and leaves us somewhat defenseless against this new “ambassador of evil.”

However, our people are strong, our institutions work seamlessly when they set out to do the right thing, and Cuban scientists are talented. These are all balms that paint a future with real possibilities for improving the epidemiological situation and collective health, a good that even the most expert appraiser has been unable to put a price on, because, of course, it has no price.

So, let's start our wishes for the coming year with health, for ourselves and our loved ones, who will ultimately become a country in its prime, one that longs for times of prosperity and progress.

None of these legitimate desires as a nation will come on a stork or fall from the sky, as we would like it to be. But no. We must fight for them, weave them into our daily lives, give them a voice in the best experiences, exalt their talent and creativity, remove the corrupt and lazy, and hand the reins to the clean and willing. We must overcome so many obstacles and labels and unite for the common good. The social project defended by this Caribbean archipelago deserves no less.

If there is one thing our people have in abundance, it is intelligence and love for their land. This has been seen in the experiences of hundreds of people from Las Tunas throughout this fleeting calendar year who, through their pages and networks, have recounted how they have stood up to all the bullets, which are rarely few, to safeguard the sacred principles of the Revolution and dreams of prosperity from here. We thank them for those inspiring moments, for the hope they build, despite so many social dilemmas plaguing us at the same time.

While we recognize such a precious gem, we can only sign, without an expiration date, our commitment as a newspaper to continue narrating the reality of this region, adding all possible points of view, problematizing, delving into areas that we as a society do not always want to see, and urgently need to see, without ignoring the virtues that accompany us. We want, as we have already said, to be part of the solution.

This province of cacti and good people, which dreams of once again being the cradle of clean streets, demands that and more from us. To our readers, thank you for walking alongside us, for never ceasing to raise the bar in your demands. That challenge challenges us, nourishes us.

We hope that on December 31, it won't matter so much what we eat as who we eat it with; that the family of Las Tunas will wake up each day of the coming year in an environment of greater personal fulfillment, more supported by the protection of their rights and civic tranquility; that there will be a glimpse of the opportunity to ease daily life.

And if it is not too much to ask, may a ray of hope fall on such a graceful Balcony in the final minutes of 2025, and may it blossom within us.

See you in the new year.