Máximo Silverio Machado began working at the Zaza del Medio railway station at the age of 19, shortly after finishing his military service. Now, at almost 70, he is retired-rehired, because he still feels like working
Máximo is also concerned about a huge water tank, in advanced deterioration, which is also part of the town’s heritage. (Photo: Naturaleza Secreta).
Máximo Silverio Machado is as much a railroad worker as he is a son of Zaza del Medio, in Taguasco, Sancti Spíritus. It is difficult to know if he is speaking from his love for the railroad or the town where he was born, but the truth is that when you ask him about the train terminal where he worked for 47 years, he starts giving arguments and never stops.
Máximo started working at the Zaza del Medio railway station at the age of 19, shortly after finishing his military service. Now, at almost 70, he is retired and rehired two years ago, “I still feel like working.”
Since 1974 he has dedicated his life, for the better, to the railroad. He started as a maintenance worker, then spent 6 months in Havana taking a course in El Rincón, which he finished in Ayesterán. He returned to his province to join as a movement operator, and there he was trained. He was station chief in Siguaney, Santa Clara, Placetas, Cabaiguán, Zaza del Medio, Sancti Spíritus…, he also directed the Loading and Unloading Center, he was head of Traffic at the Melanio Hernández central in Tuinucú, deputy director of operations, deputy director of transportation… Máximo’s life is a testimony of almost everything that moves the railroad.
He now serves as district chief of the UEB Roads and Bridges, “attending to the repair and maintenance of the roads, with a brigade in Zaza, another in Tuinucú, and another in Cabaiguán.”
Station
«I lived for 16 years in the house that had this terminal. I was station chief here, my son was born here. In 1995, a false plaster ceiling fell on us, at 11 in the morning, I don’t forget the time,” says Máximo with the certainty of someone who saw, and suffered, the deterioration of this important place.
«This station has been active since 1907, although it was founded in 1909. For Zaza del Medio it is the life and heart of this town, and it owes its development to it. Its recovery has a lot of popular support.»
«Before it had a lot of life, today, what is our hope? People are proposing… they are going to fix the terminal, but will the services it previously had return?… This town dreams and aspires, and we have proposed it, that some services can be restored after the repair. From Zaza there is no exit to any other province, you have to go to Guayos or Sancti Spíritus.
Maximo is also concerned about a huge water tank, in advanced disrepair, which is also part of the heritage site, and which many people walk by every day. He insists that we go and see it with him. No decision has yet been made about this structure and its fate.
Being a railwayman
“What does it mean to me to be a railway worker? I have spent my life here. I dream of the railway. I am active, and I will be active as long as my health allows me.”
(Taken from the Facebook profile of the Minister of Transport of Cuba)
