The artist considers himself an observant man. In fact, a painter starts from how he sees his reality and then projects it on paper. “I have many ways to work. Sometimes I start by staining the canvas in white ─which everyone is afraid of. Other times, I draw what I want to do in a sketch and go live, or I mix the two ways of working”.

His mind is full of ideas and from there he selects the topics that interest him. The creative process that he follows is as simple, or as complex, as seeing the reflection of a dog drinking water and taking that image to a painting, or photographing snapshots with his phone that catch his attention and then have them as materials to work with. “I am always with my eyes open, attentive to what surrounds me and to the provocations of the morphology, the forms and the suggestions that the landscape gives you”.

***
How do you react when all eyes are on you?

“I’m scared of it. If I’m at a conference I get nervous because I imagine what the audience thinks of the nonsense I’m saying. My method is to focus on a person and think that I am having a conversation with them.”

And when nobody looks at it? What is Nelson Dominguez like?

“I am a happy man. Calm. I smoke a cigar while I think about my work or girlfriends”.

-How do other people define it?

“That answer can only be given by someone else.”

-How do you define yourself?

“I like puns and talking to people. I abhor closed and bitter faces. There are times when people get bitter for no reason and are predisposed with life and happiness. Bad character is one of the reasons why a man can last less.

***

-Master, why art?

“By chance. When we are children we are encouraged by many things. He studied at the Camilo Cienfuegos School City, in El Caney de las Mercedes in the Bartolomé Masó municipality of Granma. They invited me to a workshop where they stood up and recorded things. He was about 12 or 13 years old. My friends and I got excited and became the painters of the school, the first after January 1, 1959. I am student 126 of the Revolution”.

-How do you remember your childhood?

“Family life outside the city is simple: work in the fields, eat, sleep and the next day the same routine. As a child I was always very observant. I can now mentally walk, piece by piece, my father’s estate. They are memories that remain in your imaginary archive and that feed you without realizing it.

“I was born on a farm between Los Negros and Matías, in Baire, Santiago de Cuba. My mind is deeply rooted in those places where I traveled through my childhood and adolescence. Once, when I was fourteen years old, I went with my father and he told me: ‘look, you were born on that little piece of land’. I have a project called Rural Galleries, I did an exhibition in the Escambray and the other I will do in that place, on my grandparents’ farm.

“I cannot deny that growing up in that place has influenced my way of conceiving art. In the first moment of my work there is a lot of relationship with the field. The departure was always that, and from time to time a peasant appears in some canvas”.

***
-What does Cuba mean?

“The fundamental reason for being Cuban is the attachment to the land where you were born. That of your parents, your brothers. All that is Cuba. There are many countries where you can live, but always, I don’t know why, you long for this land. I have never thought of settling outside this country, under any circumstances. Being a foreigner hurts a lot.

-What is the decision or project you have taken that you feel most proud of?

“I have many projects: Gallery Hospitals, Rural Galleries, Skinny Pocket. I take them little by little and along the way I involve many people. I’m always up to something. I would say the saying: ‘when I am not in prison they are looking for me’”.

-What is the biggest mistake you have made?

“Falling too much and, above all, without being reciprocated. The best thing is that there is reciprocity, and that is valid for many things in life. I overreach. Sometimes I have no brakes with passions and that has affected me a lot. I advance like this, making mistakes”.

Nelson Domínguez says that the Camilo Cienfuegos School City was a kind of “laboratory” for Fidel to later found the schools in the countryside. “At the beginning of the Revolution, an internationalist brigade from various parts of Latin America came to Cuba. There was a Chilean, an art and trade graduate, who taught us many things about ceramics in the circle of interest workshops, such as preparing a cloth.”

The artist remembers that in that center there was a director, Isidoro Gómez Palacios, who was his tutor and saw something in him. “I had forty options to continue my studies and it was that teacher who told me to forget about all the other possibilities because I was going to take the tests to enter the National School of Art.”

He took the exam and with a lot of work he passed. The first three years were very difficult for Nelson Domínguez, to the point of almost dropping out of school due to poor performance. “He had no training as a painter unlike a group of students who were graduates of art schools and provincial schools. I worked hard and improved in the second year. In the third and fourth I matched up. In the fifth year, together with Pedro Pablo Oliva and Flora Fong, we were the first records of the group”.

After graduating from the ENA, the outstanding Cuban painter Antonia Eiriz chooses him to be her assistant to her. “That has been the greatest of my joys. During that year I learned a lot, teachings that I still use”.

***
What would you like to do that you’re not doing right now?

“Hear a concert that I like. An operates. Music attracts me a lot. I was going to study it but I left it because of the solfeggio. He was bad with numbers. Once I asked Leo Brouwer why I never understood that subject and he told me that music is pure mathematics”.

-What is your biggest flaw?

“Trust. My family says that I think everyone is good, but in the end that is not a defect. The mistake would be to believe that people are bad. All people have their truths.”

-And virtue?

“Falling in love with beautiful things, believing in people and their good intentions. I also highly value altruism and solidarity.”

***

-What did his time at the National School of Art mean?

“It was the school that placed me. Also, at a certain age you see art differently. Later I was a professor at that center and together with Luis Miguel Valdés, we made all the study plans of the University of the Arts”.

-And the magisterium?

“I stand in front of a student and start from those times in which I was taught and how important the load of responsibility that a teacher has with a student was for me, although I became aware of it in its full dimension when I practiced teaching .

“I was a professor at the ENA with a teaching system based on the Renaissance where the student chose his professor in some way. I had about 12 students. He worked that day alone with a student. He was teaching her today and I didn’t see him again for 15 days. He went to the national library and brought him boxes of books related to his line of creation of him. Once Arturo Montoto said that he painted as Nelson Domínguez had taught him. I felt proud.”

-What are his characteristics of him as a plastic artist?

“I always take a lot of risks. I am not afraid, nor do I settle for success. Even if a painting has a very nice part and I realize that another part is wrong and that is why it has to be removed, I do it. I work from doubt. I am always doubting myself and my work. That has done me good.”

-Is there any point in common in his works of him?

“Although the themes are different, in the work of a painter there are always points in common. For example, Picasso had seven or eight themes and then he took them down different paths. I think that artists don’t have so many topics to deal with, but it has to do with sensitivity. For example, everyday life is something that really catches my attention.”

***
-What do you prefer to do in your free time?

“I really like gardening, but I’m more passionate about cooking. My detractors say that I am a better cook than a painter. I also write, but for myself. Abel Prieto affirms that I should take literature seriously, but the jealousy I have for the visual arts prevents me from doing so. I can betray everything except painting.”

-What has been your biggest dream?

“Having a nice big house in the country. I recently bought a farm by Nicho de Cienfuegos and I am dreaming of that project. I think that at the end of my life I will live in the country.”

-Any secret that you have not shared in a previous interview?

“Life is full of secrets and they have to be kept secret to be secrets.”

Nelson Domínguez Cedeño defends the thesis that the paintings are not famous or become important because of the topics they deal with, but because of how they are made and the intention that their creator wanted to give them. If you ask about his work, he says that he does not keep track of the exhibitions he has done. “Perhaps we have to tell what I have not yet achieved.”

One of his favorite shows was “Self-Portrait”, when he won the National Prize for Plastic Arts. “I had the right to do it in Fine Arts, but since I had exhibited twice in that place, I decided that it would be in the Pabellón Cuba. Later Lázaro Expósito took the exhibition to Santiago de Cuba, from there to Baracoa and ended up touring the entire country, except for the Isle of Youth”.

Precisely, he feels fulfilled as a plastic artist when he gets his works to be seen by as many people as possible. “‘My friend Alicia’ is an exhibition that has given me many pleasures. Now I will take it to Mayabeque, then to Matanzas, Pinar del Río and it will end on the Island. I like that my creations travel throughout Cuba.”

If you ask him what he prefers between painting, sculpture, engraving or ceramics, he assures that the emotion of each medium is what is important. “I try to respect the parameters of the procedures.”

***
-What are you scared of?

“To the dentist or to get sick, although I know that the day he dies it will be from a bump. Sometimes I fear losing myself in the desire to have money. I feel like a rich man, although I don’t know if he really is, because material possessions are not what make people rich. True fortune is having a little of what you need. No accumulation.

“For example, I really like antique furniture and I’m not an antique dealer. If I see one that I like, I invent how to find money to buy it. That is one of my passions. Look—smile—I just told you a secret.”

-If a new person came into his life, what can he do to get to know him better?

“Speak”.

-If everything disappeared and you could rescue only one thing, what would it be?

“I would be selfish and rescue the most loved one at that moment. At Armageddon it makes no sense to save brushes or paintings.

-If you could start from scratch, what would you change?

“The furniture of my house”.

***

-How is Cuban identity manifested in the work of Nelson Domínguez?

“That Cuban identity is a cliché, just like folklore. To the extent that one reflects the environment ─in black or white, lines or stripes ─ the Cubanness is present. From the moment I am Cuban and I paint in Cuba. It is not the subject that says that, but the final results. I never look for those things. If it appears or is seen by the critics who are the ones who pay attention to those details, then fine.

“I paint for myself and transmit with the brush or my hands what I have inside. Of course, I do many topics related to culture, religious syncretism or others with a load of magic that are a vox populi of society”.

-What are the main paradigms of him within the plastic arts?

“I have admiration for the Cuban school of painting. That work with very strong popular and social roots: Carlos Enríquez, Eduardo Abela, Jorge Arche, Amelia Peláez, Mariano Rodríguez, Martínez Pedro, Mirta Serra, Wilfredo Lam.

“In my works there is always something of them because I have studied them and I don’t believe in the supposed originality. The origin of art is art itself. You always have to know who came before you to see what you’re going to do.”

-And your favorite aesthetic trend?

“I’m not interested in currents. You have to be careful not to fall into isms. They are limits for a painter and there are many who are slaves to the fame they have achieved and do not leave a single method. So, you fall in love with your work and that is another serious mistake for an artist”.

***
-If you make a panorama of his life, are you satisfied?

“Nope. Satisfaction is something that man never gets to know because the trajectory of a person is so short that he does not have much time to analyze what he has done. Someone said that the trees prevent seeing the forest and that happens a lot to human beings”.

-What advice would you give to the version of him from 20 years ago?

“That I paint more, although deep down I feel satisfied with what I have achieved. Each person has their own limits, but I think there are still more surprises to come in my career as an artist.”

-What are his principles and sacred values?

“Loyalty, and not so much that of a couple but towards another human being. Friendship. Sometimes I have two cigars and I take one to an old man who lives up there because I know he will never have the chance to smoke a cigar of that quality. When you share what he has, he feels happier”.

What is it that you would die for?

“I would do it defending my country and that is not a slogan, but a reality. Saving another person. I think I might as well die of laughter.”

The renowned artist does not believe that there is a before and after in his career: “A before is now that I am alive and an after when I am not. I keep going. What I do do sometimes is go back so as not to leave without doing things that interest me. There was a time when my painting went a lot towards the figurative, so I revised and took things up again. Now I am in a period in which I reconcile with the procedures, techniques and ways of doing things that I have used before. Basically what I intend to do is a painting without much complexity. Sometimes the simple is the most difficult because it requires conclusions. The elementary is made of complex things.”

For Nelson Domínguez, learning to paint is the greatest success he has ever had in his life. “Work with joy. Know all the techniques. Perhaps success is going down the street and people recognize you and greet you, but that is social success”.

Along these same lines, he says that the awards depend on a jury. “They are not symbols of stability for anyone. It is a vision of a group of people about your work”.

When he paints, engraves, draws or molds a piece, he feels that he has no way to go. “You start a work and you don’t know how it can end. It is also a pleasure to see a finished painting that you like. But also, you see problems that you cannot solve.”

Nelson Domínguez firmly believes that art is his way of breathing, of living, of thinking, of loving. A communication media. “Sometimes I’m a little selfish and I put my work above everything else, because I think that’s the only way to get where you want to go. I also haggle a lot, for example, I want to learn computers and I don’t do it because I think about the time I won’t dedicate to painting. Is incredible”.

This job has removed the bad habit of wasting time and has given him the pleasure of doing what he wants and loving what he wants through his work or that of other artists.

***
Have you ever thought about taking a gap year?

“Nope. I can’t stand a day off. I am very attached to my work. It’s a beautiful disease.”

-If you could choose one way to die or one you don’t want to, what would they be?

“Drowning is horrible. I would very much like that necessary death to come when I am making love.”

-How would you like to be remembered when you are gone?

“Like a happy person. A deluded man who thought that he was going to live longer than he was given”.

-A word that defines your life…

“Doubt”.

-What do you think is his greatest legacy to Cuban culture?

“First you have to be aware of whether you have achieved a legacy or not. I work to leave things for others. For Cuba. That is my satisfaction.”

(By: Thalia Fuentes Puebla/Cubadebate)

Participating in the closing ceremony of the event -which began on October 17- was Jorge Luis Broche Lorenzo, member of the Secretariat and head of the Department of Attention to the Social Sector of the Central Committee of the Party; the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic Inés María Chapman Waugh; the Minister of Public Health José Ángel Portal Miranda; ministers and deputy ministers from other nations; directors of the MINSAP; representatives of international organizations and organizations and several of the delegates who participated in the event.

During the report, Dr. Ileana Morales Suárez, director of Science and Innovation of the MINSAP, made reference to the fairs that were part of Cuba-Health 2022: the Health for All Trade Fair, the Third Fair of Scientific Editorials and the First Fair of Medical Tourism and Wellness.

“Cuba-Salud 2022 had more than 3,000 face-to-face participants. Of them, 947 delegates from all Cuban provinces and 452 participants from 64 countries on all continents, who were joined by exhibitors, guests and members of the logistics and scientific insurance commissions”, reported Morales Suárez.

The doctor acknowledged the participation in the event of the leadership of PAHO and the United Nations Population Fund, as well as 44 high-level delegations, which represented ministries and secretariats of health from countries around the world.

The scientific program of Cuba-Health 2022 exceeded 350 face-to-face activities, where various topics were addressed, such as the safety and quality of medical care, confronting emerging and reemerging diseases, the impact of climate change on health, the organization and operation of health systems to make them more efficient and sustainable, antimicrobial resistance, new forms of international cooperation in health, research and innovation, among other issues.

The foregoing is of special importance, if one takes into account that “Cuba-Salud 2022 was celebrated in a complex international context, where the commitment of governments to achieve the goal of health for all faces the multiple challenges posed by epidemics, conflicts and disasters of natural or technological origin”, commented Morales Suárez.

Regarding the contributions of the event, Dr. Christopher Tufton, Minister of Health and Welfare of Jamaica, pointed out that “it has shown us that it is vital to share knowledge, to increase the capacities of the world’s health systems.” In addition, he referred that these conferences have been an example of what can be done in the face of global needs.

For his part, Dr. Armindo Daniel Tiago, Minister of Health of Mozambique, recognized Cuba’s collaboration with countries around the world and congratulated the government of the largest of the Antilles for the level of organization of the event and its scientific quality. “Cuba-Salud 2022 exceeded our expectations and will contribute to strengthening our health systems and our friendly relations,” he said.

Closure of Cuba-Health 2022. Photo: Cubadebate.

The central words of the closing were given by Tania Margarita Cruz Hernández, first deputy minister of the MINSAP, who appreciated the debates held at the event on economic, legal and regulatory issues related to health; as well as the exchanges that positioned the quality of life as a fundamental determinant of social development.

“In Cuba, despite the intensification of the blockade, the media war and the impact of the epidemiological situation caused by covid-19, the activities of the health system have not stopped and the altruistic, human and ethical behavior that characterizes Cuba has prevailed. to our professionals, for which we have maintained a service based on justice, equity and professionalism, whose premise is the development of primary health care”, reflected the deputy minister and explained that the development of promotion, prevention, medical care and rehabilitation.

He also made reference to the medical missions in other countries, which continue to be a fundamental pillar of the Cuban health system, in correspondence with the principles of solidarity of the largest of the Antilles.

Cruz Hernández thanked the participation in Cuba-Health 2022 of prestigious national and international organizations that, together with the Ministry of Public Health, made the development of the convention possible; She expressed her gratitude to the foreign delegations and the attending Cuban professionals and opened the call for the fifth International Convention and the Health Exhibition Fair, which should be held in 2025.

“Let’s continue working so that health is not a privilege, but a right for all. Count on Cuba to achieve this better world that Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz always aspired to,” she concluded.

(By: Lisandra Fariñas Acosta, Yilena Héctor Rodríguez)

More than nine thousand third grade students in Granma province changed their blue scarves for red ones and from Moncadista pioneers they become members of a unique organization in the world: the José Martí Pioneers Organization (OPJM).

(By: Yanelkys Llera Céspedes)

The event, which will be held from October 17 to 21 at the Havana Convention Center, will put the challenges of public health at the center of the debate to achieve the goal of universal health in a post-pandemic scenario and the response from the health sector to the devastating ones derived from the health crisis caused by covid-19.

Under the slogan “Universal Health, as part of the 2030 Health Agenda, in a post-Covid-19 context”, the scientific forum brings together more than 2,000 participants from 65 countries, including some twenty ministers, senior sector officials and more than 50 official delegations.

The extensive scientific program will facilitate debate on relevant topics such as the impact of climate change on health, the safety and quality of medical care, emerging and re-emerging diseases, the organization and operation of health systems to be more efficient and sustainable, antimicrobial resistance, new forms of international cooperation in health, research and innovation in health, as well as medical education, among other topics.

Manuel Marrero Cruz, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba and Prime Minister, José Angel Portal Miranda, Minister of Public Health, Carissa Faustina Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization, among other specialists in the area were present at the meeting. .

As part of this event, three associated fairs are held: The XV Health for All Trade Fair; the 3rd Scientific Publishing Fair and the 1st Medical Tourism and Wellness Fair, which includes the 2nd Foreign Investment Forum.

In Cuba Salud 2022, an exhibition on the National Health System will also be exhibited, which will represent the areas of medical care, hygiene and teaching, science and innovation and health promotion.

According to Dr. Ileana Morales Suárez, director of Science and Technological Innovation of the Ministry of Public Health, the organization of this Convention conceives the harmonic integration of its scientific, exhibition and commercial activities. For its realization, it had the help of prestigious national and international entities and the official venues are the Convention Center of Havana, the Pabexpo fairgrounds and the University of Medical Sciences of Havana, whose precursor center, the Institute of Basic Sciences and Preclinical Victoria de Girón celebrates its sixtieth anniversary today.

“With this edition, the Cuba Salud conventions are ten years old, a decade of scientific activities aimed at dialogue and reception around global health in a period marked by complex challenges in the international arena. The four editions have focused their attention on relevant issues such as the quality and effectiveness of health systems, health for all and health coverage, universal health for sustainable development, and on this occasion they will speak in particular about health, freedom as part of the twenty thirty health agenda in the post scenario covid.

The meeting provides for a broad scientific program that will promote a debate on the current and future challenges of public health and will also delve into the opportunities gap related to health in public policies. The exchanges will include experts from 64 countries, so it is hoped that a consensus will be reached on the need to consider the improvement of the population’s health as a fundamental determinant of social development.

The scientific program has 310 activities included in 31 events and 1,611 scientific papers were approved.

(By: Lisandra Farinas Acosta)

Also present were Jorge Luis Broche Lorenzo, member of the secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and head of its Department of Attention to the Social Sector; Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Cuba; Dr. José Angel Portal Miranda, Minister of Public Health of Cuba and Dr. Carissa F. Etienne, Director of the Pan American Health Organization.

“Cuba is a health tourism destination endorsed by the prestige and achievements of Cuban medicine, the expertise, warmth and sensitivity of its professionals,” said the prime minister.

“The history of Cuban medicine shows achievements in rigorous, advanced and innovative work methodologies, procedures and medical protocols for human health,” said Marrero Cruz in the opening remarks of the fair, which has the presence of 118 companies from from 40 markets, 68 national companies, hotel chains and micro, medium and small companies (MSMEs).

Marrero Cruz highlighted the collaboration between the Ministries of Health and Tourism and stated that this fair is here to stay. “We have to systematize it with all the potential that Cuba represents to offer and market health tourism at an international level,” said the prime minister, who pointed out that in the midst of the complex times that the country is experiencing, the high level is satisfactory. participation in this fair.

He commented that the meeting has an extensive program of activities, where more than 150 meetings and exchanges, conferences, panels, presentations and negotiation rounds stand out.

“All the health potential, built up over more than 60 years of training and professional practice, together with scientific and biopharmaceutical development and that achieved by our tourism industry in the country, is fully articulated to provide the best service based on heal and offer the highest quality of life. Cuban public health and the experience of our professionals and the tourist locations that the country presents make a perfect combination for health tourism, aimed at raising people’s quality of life”, he said.

Marrero Cruz highlighted the importance of holding both events, both the Fair and the Convention, after having successfully overcome the covid-19 pandemic.

“There was not a moment when we did not think of Fidel, because his design of the Cuban public health system was the one that allowed us to face a totally unknown disease. Precisely that experience of the Cuban health system, which begins with primary care, which is where people’s lives are really saved, with the constant and systematic care of family doctors,” he said.

“Today great efforts are being made by the Ministry of Public Health to consolidate this primary health system. All the family doctor’s offices are being repaired, almost 12,000 throughout the country, ”he specified,

Likewise, he explained that the confrontation with covid-19 has been studied, since there are processes and protocols that were incorporated and are here to stay.

“We defend that the Cuban health system will always be public.

(By: Lisandra Fariñas Acosta e Ismael Francisco)

On this visit, in which he exchanges with the people and authorities of Pinar del Río, the Cuban leader is accompanied by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Alejandro Gil Fernández.

At the provincial headquarters of the PCC, Díaz-Canel was received by Army Corps General Ramón Espinosa Martín; the member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee Félix Duarte Ortega; the first secretary of the Party in Pinar del Río, Yamilé Ramos Cordero, and the governor of the province, Rubén Ramos Moreno.

The tour of the Cuban president began in Consolación del Sur, where more than 20,000 homes were affected. There, the electricity service has been restored to 25% of the clients and more than 300 Cubans from various provinces help in the recovery.

In Consolación, Díaz-Canel exchanged with the residents. He also shared with the pioneers at the Francisco Valdés Ramos school, in the Piloto town, in that municipality.

Along this path, this Tuesday afternoon two exchanges were held between the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, with experts and scientists for health issues, and the members of the Temporary Group of I work for the prevention and control of COVID-19 and dengue.

At the center of the analyzes of both meetings was the evaluation of the behavior of the dengue and COVID-19 epidemics in the country, two aspects that do not allow carelessness in their confrontation.

Dengue in October: Maintain surveillance and vector control
October —assert the specialists— is confirmed in Cuba as a month in which the infestation rates of the Aedes aegypti mosquito tend to increase and, therefore, also the incidence of dengue among the Cuban population.

Such reflections were shared this Tuesday during President Díaz-Canel’s meeting with experts and scientists for health issues, in which Dr. Francisco Durán García, director of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Public Health, drew attention to the effects of Hurricane Ian in the epidemiological situation of the country and the importance of maintaining and intensifying vector control actions.

To the extent that the sanitation work progresses —he reflected— we will be in better conditions to contain the increase in the infestation, which is ultimately what is leading us to still have somewhat high incidence rates of suspected cases.

In support of his assessments, he commented on the experience of health intervention that is currently being carried out in the province of Mayabeque, specifically in the municipality of Batabanó, in the community of Surgidero, where the effects associated with Hurricane Ian made the epidemiological situation.

Even though there the cases with febrile syndrome that are being seen in the demand for care have not decreased, it is indisputable that the rates of infestation are improving discreetly, he considered.

Precisely in the municipality of Batabanó, dengue transmission was opened during the last week, the first deputy minister of the Ministry of Public Health, Tania Margarita Cruz Hernández, would explain shortly after, at the Temporary Working Group meeting for the prevention and control of COVID-19. 19 and dengue. The epidemiological control and surveillance actions implemented there have been essential to avoid a much more complex scenario.

Reporting on the behavior of the disease in the country over the course of the last week, Cruz Hernández specified that dengue transmission is maintained in the 15 provinces, as well as in 44 municipalities and 62 health areas. As a favorable element, she highlighted that the incidence rate of suspected cases decreased by 32.7% compared to the same preceding period.

The provinces with rates of suspected cases above the national average are Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, Camagüey, Matanzas, Sancti Spíritus, Villa Clara and Mayabeque.

In this sense, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party insisted on the priority with which work must be done throughout the country in the identification of foci in order to act against the proliferation of the mosquito.

Without trusting ourselves before covid-19
September has been the best month of this year in terms of the incidence of COVID-19 in Cuba, assured Dr. Raúl Guinovart Díaz, dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computing of the University of Havana, when sharing together to experts and scientists for health issues, the usual forecasts on the behavior of the epidemic.

The forecasts, he assessed, are quite favorable for all the provinces, and it is expected that the trend towards control will continue throughout the national territory.

The figures shared shortly after, at the meeting of the Temporary Working Group for the prevention and control of COVID-19 and dengue, by the First Vice Minister of Public Health, although they do not constitute any reason to neglect the epidemiological surveillance actions associated with the disease, show the favorable situation that is manifested throughout the country.

Let us take some examples as a basis for this certainty: at the end of the last week, ending on October 1, the diagnosis of positive cases decreased by 53.1% compared to the same previous period; there were eight weeks in which a decrease in infections was confirmed; Meanwhile, for six consecutive weeks, the death of no Cuban as a result of COVID-19 has been regretted.

Given this favorable scenario, an evident example of how much work has been done in Cuba to contain the epidemic and minimize its damage to the population, the President of the Republic insisted that we cannot trust each other, and we must continue to monitor and observe the behavior of the disease. in order to maintain the control that has been achieved over it.

Intertwine strategies to advance health goals
Precisely about the many and diverse actions that are promoted and implemented by the Ministry of Public Health to comply with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and their articulation with the 2030 National Economic and Social Development Plan in the post-COVID-19 context, he detailed also during the working day Ileana Morales Suárez, director of Science and Technological Innovation of the Ministry of Public Health.

The COVID-19 epidemic, she assured, has not been a reason to neglect these lines of work, which are of vital importance to guarantee a better quality of life for our population. When the world set goal 3, which is to “guarantee a healthy life and promote the well-being of all”, multiple strategies had already been outlined in our country to achieve it, recalled Morales Suárez.

In an inclusive manner, she detailed, we have managed to align the Sustainable Development Goals with the National Plan for Economic and Social Development and that has led us to a more comprehensive strategy for compliance.

As an unquestionable strength to advance in these purposes, he highlighted, among others, all the Health structures that exist throughout the country, such as the clinics; the Family Physician Program; the universities of Medical Sciences; almost half a million health workers; cooperation links with other organizations, and a healthcare and scientific network.

Cuba, like the rest of the countries in the world, faces great health challenges. More than six decades of Revolution have paved the way so that facing them is not a matter of one day or carrying out campaigns, but rather a supreme purpose on the road to protecting the health of its people.

(By: Yaima Puig Meneses)

Last Wednesday, from car to car, from stretch to stretch, we traveled about a hundred and fifty kilometers and reached Pinar del Río. Destruction, pain in people’s faces, fallen trees, houses without roofs, others on the ground. A bleak scene.

After talking with the first interviewee, the one who only had a roof fall off a terrace and her chest tightened when she assured us that she was not compared to others who had lost everything, there, just at that moment, something in us changed. .

We didn’t want to write but she had us travel the province, go to the most intricate places, feel the stories, try to tell them in the most reliable way possible. Without electricity or water, staying to sleep wherever the night took us, working mornings and afternoons in the provincial telecentre, but knowing that that was where we should be, and that despite everything, when we returned to Havana we had a roof over our heads, and that thousands in that land of good people had lost absolutely everything.

We didn’t want to write, but we did. There go the stories.

Walking along a road that is difficult to access, you reach “La Loma de la Candela”, the popular name of the first street at the end of the Diez de Octubre district, in the city of Pinar del Río. Cars cannot pass through the area, it is impossible, the road is in terrible condition.

In the surroundings of the highway there are simple houses, most of them made of wood, whose owners live as a family and that is how they passed Hurricane Ian.

Hopeful they say that the survey of the damages has already been done and that the area is included in a project that contemplates the total repair of the streets, the houses that are a few meters from them and public lighting. “Perhaps with Ian the process will be accelerated,” some say.

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Testimonies from Loma de la Candela

Yusniel Norbel Valdés. Photo: Cubadebate.

“The three of us spent the cyclone together in the shop window”
On the night of September 27, Yadielis Madera and Yusniel Norbel Valdés sent their children Tania and Yudiel Alejandro to Yusniel’s mother’s house. “Because it is stronger. My wife and I stayed here to secure the roof,” says Yusniel, a 39-year-old turnboy.

On top of the roof they put some sacks, but as soon as the wind began to blow strongly, the first fiber of the front of the portal was lifted. And that’s where the never-ending battle began.

“I tried to hang on to pull it out, but I couldn’t and they all went away. We had to get inside the window to get past the cyclone.”

At 3:30 in the morning, from their temporary shelter they felt their door being pushed. “It was Reinier Pérez, one of the neighbors, asking for help.”

Reinier had fled from his wooden house. He was afraid that a tree would fall on the house. He went into the window with Yadielis and Yusniel. They had a bad time together.

Yadielis and Yusniel say that some windows became loose, others fell. The walls behind the kitchen cracked, the ones in the corners. Everything got wet: the mattress, the children’s notebooks, the equipment. During these days they continue giving things sun, “let’s see if we can recover them”.

Yadielis remembers that they spent the night watching how the zincs flew through the air, “with the fear that instead of doing it from the outside, they would go inside and catch us. It was the saddest night of my life.”

Her husband insists that he knows that everyone is affected, “but we have two small children and the roof gets completely wet. I had to look for the fibers in the streams and put them patched up, full of holes, to see if one day they help me with the fibers, or two bags of cement. What the State can”.

Reinier, Yadielis and Yusniel.Photo: Cubadebate.

“I had to run away, because otherwise the house would fall on top of me”
With Reinier we also talked. When I left desperately around 3:30 a.m., because some segments had already fallen from the bush next to my house, I called Yusniel and the three of us went inside the shop window to wait for the thing to finish. As soon as I left, the bush fell on my house. If I managed to stay in there, I wouldn’t be doing the story right now”, he expresses with determination.

For Reinier, who graduated in Physical Education 22 years ago, Ian’s attacks broke the television, the refrigerator, the ceiling lamps… The mattresses were soaked in water.

“Here is my little house,” he says and points to what was left of his house. “This is what I have been able to achieve on my own, and now I have backed off with the hurricane. What is needed for the Revolution to help me make a ‘quimbito’, as the good Cuban says. I ask for nothing more.”

(By Angélica Arce Montero, Thalía Fuentes Puebla/ Cubadebate)

The authorities of Florida, United States, confirmed this Friday that at least 23 people died as a result of Hurricane Ian, a figure that could still increase considerably.

US media show higher balances citing county officials, who report up to 45 deaths due to the passage of the storm.

The official figure of 23 deceased was published this Friday by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission, which also reported that the victims are between 22 and 92 years old, and most of them showed signs of drowning.

The bodies were found floating in flooded streets and on the beach, as well as in some cases inside vehicles.

The hurricane quickly downgraded to a post-tropical system this Friday shortly after making landfall in South Carolina (USA).

According to the latest part of the American National Hurricane Center (NHC), Ian, however, continues to offer “dangerous storm surge, flash flooding and strong winds” for the Carolinas and western Virginia.

“Just because the storm is over, don’t think there’s no danger,” DeSantis said at a news conference in East St. Augustine, referring to the dangers of downed power lines and leaking gas.

The priority now is to reach all the people who are still isolated in flooded areas, with an eye on the uncertainty of what the death toll will be as a direct cause of the hurricane, which hit the peninsula with category 4.

Hundreds of people trapped in the southwestern Florida town of North Port in Sarasota were rescued in an operation that also included US National Guard units.

Some of the houses in the city can only be accessed through boats and launches, while the inhabitants who decided not to leave their homes try to drain, by their own means, the waters of the flood caused by the heavy rains that Ian brought with him. .

In addition, long queues have formed at petrol stations and supermarkets in the areas less affected by the floods, and there are still problems with the electricity supply in the region.

About 1.3 million Floridians remain without power after Hurricane Ian as of Saturday morning, a senior official with the Federal Emergency Management Administration said during a news conference.

(With information from agencies)

Before, we passed through the rubble of one of the 38 controlled cure houses that the territory has. “The cyclone completely knocked down the tobacco house,” says López González as he points to the entire structure on the ground. Below you can see the tobacco that is still covered with hermetic tarpaulins.

“The horcones, which were from Ocuje de María, a strong material, he pulled out by the roots and some he broke. Everything is messed up. The cover was repairing it and now there is nothing left. The wires are still watered. The zinc plates on the roof blew up and I couldn’t recover them,” lamented this farmer.

After the passage of the hurricane – assures the producer – nobody has touched anything. “I’m waiting for the company to decide what to do with the product because in there, in addition to wet tobacco, there is also dry tobacco.”

Around 4 in the morning last Tuesday, Conrado and his wife began to put a blanket on one of the blinds through which the water entered and a zinc that flew out of the ceiling cut his face and her back. .

“María Isabel got under the plateau and from there she did not want to get out because of the scare. The house completely fell apart; Last night I slept under the night watchman,” says the man from San Juan.

Despite his personal effects, what worries him the most is the damage to the harvested tobacco. “I have recovered some fibers and in two or three days my house will have a roof.”

Regarding the recovery of the cooperative, he said: “With the wood that is there I can build another tobacco house, even if it is smaller. If I succeed, I will harvest again this campaign”.

Damages that Ian left to Sanjuanero tobacco.

According to statements to the press by Yosvany López González, head of the post of the Tabacuba analysis directorate in San Juan y Martínez, until this Wednesday, 151 of the 155 deposits used by the company to store the tobacco that it collects from the producer had been reported. as total landslides.

Of the 27 chosen, including the stemming process, there are 15 completely destroyed, two partially and seven with damaged roofs. “Until the 20th of this month, 4,110.38 tons of tobacco had been collected. Another 157.87 t were in the hands of the 67 producers and the current state of that harvest is not exactly known,” explained the manager.

In total, there are 5,680.69 tons in the Tabacuba warehouses in the territory, which includes the collection of this year, last campaign, in the production process and the finished one, in addition to 151.80 tons that belong to the Rama Company.

The 38 controlled healing houses are on the ground, and of the 28 healing chambers, one half collapsed completely and the other partially. Also, the five fermentation chambers that are used to improve dry tobacco have problems with roofing after the passage of lan.

Of the 1,792 priest houses that belong to the producing peasants, 1,739 collapsed. On the other hand, the 8,400 stonecutters in the territory were lost.

López González said that he was oriented, at first, to rescue the tobacco that was in those damaged structures. “You have to cover what is possible and move the tobacco that works there,” he concluded.