Rafael Montero Toranzo, Montero to his family and friends, was born on August 21, 1961. Until he was 42 years old, he lived at 131 Antonio Barrera Street, between Cuba and Martha Abreu, in the Buena Vista neighborhood, very close to the railroad line in this city. And, “like all the boys in the neighborhood, I loved to watch the trains go by on that branch line,” he recalls.

He tells it now and attributes his fascination for these machines to such proximity and to the emotions awakened in his childhood imagination by the contact of the huge wheels with the rails, the cadence, the screeching... He assures that since then he was obsessed with the idea of riding and driving a locomotive. And he succeeded.

Of course, at that age he could not imagine the responsibility involved in the profession, the sacrifice, the family separation for hours and even days; however, after getting to know them, he did not give up his desire and in 1989 he joined the staff of the Vía y Obra collective.

“No locomotive riding, but I was closer and I still enjoyed the maneuvers, the stridency...”, he says, smiles, and comments that ‘the work there is very hard’. For three calendars, he sweated “in spurts” changing heavy, damaged sleepers, shimming and aligning rails, plating..., “doing whatever was necessary to guarantee the transit and the safe arrival of the trains at their final destination,” he emphasizes.

He was brave, stubborn and nothing made him change his mind. Of his almost 64 years of age, he has dedicated 35 years to various union activities with recognized results that crown his dedication. He has become a symbol for the railroad workers, who are celebrating their Day this January 29th.

Like his colleagues, he faces numerous obstacles: lack of spare parts, fuel, lubricants... to fulfill, as they would like, the complex missions they have traditionally assumed - and assume - in the transfer of goods, passengers and other cargo, in a narrow and long island, where this economic modality must reign.

After occupying dissimilar responsibilities: chief of yard and driver of the machine in that area, and assistant driver in the Manatí traveler, a job he did for 17 years, he finally climbed the desired step: driver, which “is the maximum responsible of the crew”, he affirms while he tells anecdotes of how he has faced the assignment.

MONTERO, THE DRIVER

“The driver has to take care of everything, without neglecting any detail of the itinerary, the physical and mental health of his teammates, food, rest, discipline, punctuality...”, and he has been doing this for more than five years.

Now Montero is in charge of the crew of engine-car 4141, one of those that run as an urban train on the outskirts of the city. He thinks about the usefulness of this option for the people and about the salary income of his colleagues; and he says: “It's been broken for a year now and since last June we took the differential to the capitol of Delicias, the system's workshop in the province, and they still haven't solved the problem it has in the internal bearing,” he regrets.

“One misses that service as much as the population, but solving such difficulty is not in our hands,” he comments and refers that since then they - the crew - have not abandoned that means. “We go around it, check its state of preservation, and look forward to returning to the track.”

FAMILY, ABSENCES...

Montero says that working in cargo and passenger transportation is “something very nice. It has its peculiarities, but every time you leave and arrive at your destination on time, without problems, you feel a tremendous satisfaction.

These activities, when they are outside the province, involve sacrifices that only they feel in their own flesh.

“Sometimes it implies the separation of the family for several days”, and he talks about the end of the year waiting to load in the port of Carúpano and other significant dates in the yards of Pastelillo, in Nuevitas, Camagüey; and stays in Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba for two weeks to receive the cargo.

Although “the crew becomes an extension of the family, the other one, the blood one, is missed a lot, mainly on special dates, commemoration dates, when we are almost always together. But if duty calls, you have to do your duty. And in that, I have all the support, which gives me peace of mind.

“Because we know when we go out, not when we come back. That's my farewell sentence at home,” he says, and such a reality demands a secure rearguard.

BITTER EXPERIENCES AND RESOLUTION

In these years, he has not had any accidents attributed to non-compliance with the rules governing performance, but “we have suffered unpleasant situations, including the loss of people's lives, which is something regrettable and painful. These cases are always classified as pedestrian, because they have happened due to carelessness, negligence on the part of the victims”, he confirms and details how such experiences have included violent reactions from the affected families.

Apart from the hard and demanding tasks, painful moments, distances and longings, his age, almost at the limits of retirement, in addition to the physical and mental demands, Rafael Montero Toranzo confirms that he has not thought about retirement.

“If my abilities no longer allow me to continue as a conductor, I will look for something else to do, because I will not leave the railroads until my last breath”.