The second of the Maria (s) was the one who opened the door of their home for me. To my surprise, she had been my teacher of the subject Fundamentals of Political Knowledge, at the Juan Marinello junior high school. She was very demanding in the training of her students, an excellent teacher. During her classes she made you live the combats and feel like the hero or the heroine.
We start the story and go back to its beginnings. María Elena became a Primary School teacher. She enjoyed working with the children, but upon graduation she was asked to be part of a group that would teach on the then Isle of Pines. She taught there for seven years. She always missed her city.
She is very pleased to tell of her participation in the solemn act in which Fidel named the special municipality as Isla de la Juventud, on August 2nd, 1978, within the framework of the XI World Festival of Youth and Students held in Cuba.
The decision was a recognition of the thousands of young people who studied there and carried out their creative work, given the call to contribute to the development of that territory.
María Elena remembers with emotion the insistence of the Commander in Chief that that part of Cuba become a land of opportunities for youth, a land repopulated with new dreams.
After completing her task, María Elena missed her home and her land very much. Therefore, she returned home; but there were many primary teachers at that stage. Because of this, she only found work at the Alfredo Álvarez Mola secondary school, where her sister María Julia – the youngest of the three María (s) – gave classes.
The position that they had available was to teach History. Thus, she joined the family specialty.
On the paths of history
When she began with the subject Fundamentals of Political Knowledge, which became Civic Education, she taught it in several secondary schools, until she added 41 years of work.
In the year 2002 she retired. Shortly after, when she began the universalization for people disconnected from the studies, she was called back to the classrooms -in which she remained for seven more years, educating and teaching the new generations the values and struggles of our predecessors.
María Elena remembers with joy the historical investigations that she carried out together with her students, in the search for knowledge related to plaques, monuments and historical sites of Camagüey, often unknown to the youngest.
Although she has already stopped teaching in the classrooms, she has never stopped teaching. Her house is a kind of library for students of all ages, neighbors and even older adults inserted in self-improvement courses. Any interested person who knocks on her door, to say hello or to investigate a specific historical fact, finds the right book or the teacher’s notes, which make History an interesting and beautiful path.
That is why she is sure that the teachers never retire, that they are eternal; because guiding good citizens by example is a daily practice of this professor and Camagüeyan by excellence, who did not accept seductions from the Isla de la Juventud and returned to where she is happy -proud of our good speech and the name that defines us.
María Elena and I said goodbye with a hug and a see you later; while we wait for the youngest of the sisters to whom we dedicate the Three Marías for History series.
Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García
