Doctor Álvaro's passions: medicine and making the land produce

Doctor Álvaro Acosta Salerno, born in Holguín and raised in Santiago, is known by many patients as "Durán", because of his gray hair and ease of communication that make him look like the National Director of Hygiene and Epidemiology responsible for the daily COVID-19 briefings.

Perhaps because of these qualities, now with the pandemic he fulfills important tasks in the Camilo Torres polyclinic, such as visiting and transferring suspected patients and contacts of confirmed cases.

When asked if he is not afraid of getting infected, he says no, because he follows the health protocols to the letter, since his children Álvaro, 22, and Thalía, 20—both medical students—as well as his wife Karina, a pharmacist at an oncology hospital, are waiting for him at home.

As is to be expected, at home they talk a lot about medicine, as befits their career of choice, but they find time to take care of their plot of land in the Santa Rosa community, kept under a Credit and Service Cooperative.

Álvaro enjoys changing his white coat when he arrives home for his guajiro clothes and getting into the fields, sometimes even at night, to relieve the stress and tensions of the day, caused by the complex health situation.

Love for medicine and the land

Any seed that falls into his hands goes straight into the soil. So it happened when someone gave him a giant guava that he and his wife used to make a seedbed and today they proudly show the guava grove they managed to grow.

This year he had a good harvest of plantain, and now he is busy with okra, both for the cooperative and family consumption. But in general his neighbors are amazed at Alvaro’s output, which includes root and garden vegetables, depending on the season.

Although the land is good and benefits from the nearby waters of the San Juan River, the truth lies in the couple’s hands and the love they pour on what they do.

When Álvaro arrived in the city of Santiago de Cuba and got married for the first time, he started working at a Family Doctor's office in a neighborhood where many skilled carpenters lived. In his spare time he learned from them the secrets of woodworking, and today he is proud to say that he made the windows and doors of the house where he has lived for 18 years with the family he created with his second marriage.

He also knows a bit about electricity and masonry, and has a reputation as a good baker.

With two international medical missions under his belt, the love for medicine and the land flows through Alvaro's veins. He cares deeply about the union and formation of the family, and in his leisure time he plays dominoes with his children and wife, enjoys his daughter Thalia's guitar jams, and strives together with them to make their dreams come true, namely to heal people and make the land produce.