Every morning, at 9 am like a spring, with a conditioned reflex, most of us Cubans turn on the television to see what news Dr. Francisco Durán García brings, a man who has become an essential part of our lives. We pay attention to the conference with the hope that the results will be more promising that day.

We have been repeating this morning action for more than a year and apparently we will keep it going for a long time; because unfortunately the data and numbers of the last days predict it.

Against all odds, that good doctor, sparing no day, hour or minute, offers an update on how the pandemic is going in our country and the rest of the world each day. We see in his face reflected the displeasure and anguish that these news causes him: every death, discouraging news or new focal point that has originated, so when I observe him I try to put myself in his place, thinking a little more about him as a simple person that belongs to this town, and I say to myself: What a courage, dedication and strength this man has!

The responsibility that distinguishes us

Yes, because while many of us sleep, he keeps awake thinking about how to approach such data and how to persuade us again and again to be disciplined, to take a greater perception of risk and not as a slogan, no, but really, from within, with knowledge of cause, as he well knows from being a great scholar and researcher of medicine.

Many times we have noticed his angry face, but that breath of positivity that characterizes him always emerges, not only to him but to all Cuban doctors, knowing that this, like so many other adversities, we will conquer it. We will get out of it, and every day we are closer to achieving it.

But for no one it can be a secret that in each Cuban there is, to a large extent, a part of responsibility and triumph over this evil that today haunts the world; Well, if we do the minimum that is instructed by the authorities, we will be able to wait with better conditions for the moment when our vaccine candidates, already vaccines, take away our fear of such a deadly virus.

Also Martí

Today, I precisely reread a thought of our José Martí, which I want to share with him, because like everything he wrote, it us a piece of art. It goes well with these times, in which each of us must and have the obligation to stand up, because we will show the world that as he predicted, “… If the man is useful, the earth too …”, then, I am sure, very soon we will show to the world once more what we are capable of.

From our legendary city we will also contribute to this desire to return to normality, the grain of sand that distinguishes us as responsible children of Agramonte.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García