Sancti Spiritus family with a vocation for the land (+photos) – Escambray

No oath was required, nor the approval of a notary; The daily writing in the open land of Ramón Marrero Medina was enough, the farmer who, before leaving this world, bequeathed to Taguasco an agricultural work without parallel in that geography. His example was so profound that the family turned productive continuity into the most genuine harvest of peasant roots in the Santa Rosa area.

Nobody like Andrea Oliva Naranjo or, simply, Mima, to catalyze the agrarian heritage that has taken over the Tres Hermanas farm, on the property of the Obdulio Morales Credit and Services Cooperative. She is a wife and always in the rear, but if it comes to work, look for her in the front row; almost a life behind the wood stove. Now, at 70 years old, she pulls every day to the team that she also tamed and taught: Raudel and Jorge Félix Marrero Oliva.

Continuing with the land is a family tradition, Mima agrees, with moisture passing through her eyes. “Continue producing tobacco, food, everything you can; The two men took charge of the production, I didn’t have to ask them, they wanted to do it, the female accompanies me and helps around the house. The food? Of course we continue to deliver it, Jorge Félix takes it with oxen to the Taguasco Fair.

“The farm has not been lost, nor will it be lost, that is Marrero’s mark, a brother of mine also plants tobacco with us. The boys learned their father’s lessons well, maybe they need a little more to be at his level, but they work hard, it’s true; Well, Mima will be looking good until she lives.”

I STAYED WITH THE FOODS

Although sheep breeding seems to reign among his peasant tastes, when it came to distributing the farm’s orders, Jorge Félix Marrero Oliva made a pact with various crops; It’s not that he went overboard with tobacco and livestock, but rather he preferred an approach in which he also feels like a fish in water when his life marks half a century.

“What I like is tobacco, but my dad also grew cassava, sweet potato bananas… and I went that way; Raudel is more into tobacco and livestock. I am still guided by Marrero’s little book, it was the teaching we had; In the sweet potato I planted the red top, which he liked better; What we will not stop planting,” emphasizes the producer.

Rather than giving space to marabou and other weeds, another brand of continuity is revealed in the management and exploitation of the soil. “Here they always distinguished three things: livestock, tobacco and food, nothing has declined, what I’m telling you is not idle talk, everything is there, come any day and see, the intention is to bring the farm to more development,” he confirms. .

If a label of its own always had that piece of Taguasque soil, next to the road, almost reaching Santa Rosa, it was the inviolable delivery of the productions to the state. Commitment mixed with self-control, to the point that the liters of milk that were sent to the dairy industry 365 days a year were recorded in a notebook.

The route of commitment has not been lost on the Tres Hermanas farm either. “That is inviolable, we go to the fair every week with a team of oxen and the cart to carry food. My dad never diverted production, he always put it in the hands of the state, we walk there too,” he confirms.

The dialogue was almost over and Jorge Félix kept quiet about another of his concerns as a producer: the breeding of rams, a flock that he inherited; but he, more than maintaining the line, has multiplied it.

“The breeding of sheep was old, now I have developed what they call Indian hair ox. I have about 120 rams; Maybe in that I have already passed the Maestro a little bit, although my dad left the bar high for us. It is true that there are no resources, prices are harsh, but on earth what is needed is man’s interest in sowing and producing.

“Here everything has remained the same, even Mima continues writing down the milk that is delivered daily in the notebook. My dad never left the land to go to town, we won’t do that either. Marrero created a very close-knit family; We continue with Mima, he also has experience and we pay attention to him, that is why we are here,” says Jorge Félix.

CRADLE LIVESTOCK

He almost grew up among the legs of cattle, an activity preferred by his paternal producer, so there is nothing strange about Raudel Marrero Oliva carrying that passion in his blood. At 39 years old, he has the tools to rub shoulders with exalted growers and, when it comes to tobacco, it is clear that he is a knowledgeable student of the plain. But when he talks about the pasture, he rejoices.

“Livestock has always existed here, my father defended it with his life, what I have done is give it continuity and development. Today I have 27 cows of Sardinian breed cattle, a yard that we started in 2018, a very dairy animal, strong for the dry season. We have already sold heifers to half of Sancti Spíritus and to other provinces as well; “Livestock is what I liked the most,” he says and remains thinking, as if looking for other memories in the memories of family learning.

Then, he pulls out another confession from his gut. “When you are born, you grow up in the countryside, you love things, you should not abandon what you started; All this was my father’s dream, the least we can do is follow his example, walk in his furrow.”

As much as the dialogue seeks to unravel the current footprint of the Marero Oliva brothers, they prefer to return to the roots, perhaps the most logical thing to explain the peasant roots that run through their blood.

“My dad was attracted to everything about the countryside; Of course, tobacco was his life. The only thing he didn’t like was how badly it was made. I feel like a rancher, but this year I planted sun-grown tobacco, a very good meadow, in a few days I will start cutting the cover,” he says and looks at the room, as if he wanted to say: ‘old man, I took the meadow forward.’

More than inheriting land and properties, non-compliance with production has no place on the Marero Oliva family’s property. “That would be embarrassing,” says Raudel. “Last year I fulfilled the milk plan and contributed more; In these four months it has been the same. Here, if one day the milk stops being delivered it is because the river rises and does not allow us to pass to Taguasco; We ensure food and water for the cows, I milk them and I have a carrier, that doesn’t fail,” he says.

“We remember Marrero every day,” Raudel reveals. He breathes, touches his hat and returns to the idea. “Every time I go to do something I remember him; For example, he said: ‘unbutton the boxed tobacco’, when you can hardly see the button, you have to pick it up with your fingernail. Seeing a flowering tobacco, that was poison to him; This year I did it, and it worked for me. What you learn with a teacher like my father is not forgotten, we have the teachings recorded,” says Raudel Marrero.

The morning advances and the farmer has urgent tasks ahead of him, such as going to cut cane for the animals, already thinking about tomorrow’s milking; In the epilogue of the dialogue he draws his future.

“I have never thought about going to the town, it is the tradition of the peasant not to abandon the farm, what is one’s own. It is very nice to sit in the afternoons on the porch of the house and see a sow giving birth, a chicken taken out, the cows eating in the pasture, see the father bull…, with my family, that is my life, I would not be happy if I stop seeing that landscape every day.”