Rita Rodríguez Mayolina receives the Hero Award.
By: Mavel Ponce de León Hernández*
Holguín, June 3 (RHC) Filitalia International conferred the Hero Award in its fourth edition to Holguin native Rita Rodríguez Mayolina, of Italian descent, with more than 50 years in the public health sector in Holguín, and a member of the chapter in the province .
With a degree in Occupational Social Rehabilitation, the Holguin native thus becomes the first Cuban to be honored by Filitalia International.
In its services, the love for girls and boys with disabilities stands out, until they achieve incorporation into social life with trades and other skills for work “I always remember an eighteen-year-old teenager who did not leave her house and I managed to make her learn to knitting and other skills,” she emphasized, moved to tears.
Rodríguez Mayolina, is a descendant of Italians on his mother’s side through his grandfather, who arrived in Cuba in the 1940s and settled in Central Santa Lucía, in the current municipality of Rafael Freire, in the province of Holguín.
The Hero Award was instituted in 2021 by Dr. Pasquale Nestico, founding president of Filitalia International, with the purpose of recognizing doctors, nurses and other workers in their fight to combat Covid -19.
Filitalia has 28 chapters in the world and two in Cuba, in Havana and in Holguín, made up of descendants or Italians residing in the province.
Nicola Pirone, executive president of Filitalia, when presenting the Hero, told Radio Havana Cuba “this award is given on June 2, Day of the Italian Republic and is very important.”
“The first edition was given only to doctors and health personnel. In the second it was opened to social issues, to people who are close to people working, it was also given to businessmen, teachers…”
Regarding the cultural ties between both countries, he stated “the presence of Italy in Holguín is notable in the sculptures. I have seen many and in Havana too.”
It is a cultural and medical bridge “between Cuba and Italy, thanks to the Cuban doctors who are in the Calabria region providing their services. That gives me a lot of joy,” said the journalist and director of Kalabria TV.
The ties between Cuba and Italy are reinforced by Filitalia International, promoting cultural exchange and knowledge of languages, the language, between both countries.
The chapter in Holguín is directed by Yosvani Rodríguez Bruzón, a descendant of Italians with cultural encounters from the House of Ibero-America, characterized by its cultural exchanges between peoples, roots and traditions.
