The guardian of my childhood

From our house in the province of Artemisa’s town of Pijirigua we could see the Sierra del Rosario, sometimes blue and others radiant with greenery, as the sun lingered among the mountains. We thought we were lucky to sleep with her as our guardian.

Among its beauties is Las Terrazas, a community for which I feel a special love, because it is linked to my homesickness and yearning for its rivers and trees, where my siblings and I enjoyed many a childhood vacation. I was convinced that this was the most beautiful place in Cuba.

My sister Cachy would argue that we had never been anywhere else. True, we didn't know our country, since we were simple guajiritos from inland with no other vision of the world.

As time went by and thanks to my profession, I got to know many other paradisiacal spaces in Cuba. However, I am still in love with that special area that looks like a beautiful painting, stopped in time by any of the local painters who have devoted themselves to exalting the landscape of their land, and where you can enjoy the "recital" of a Cuban trogon or tocororo, which does not flinch in front of people, or that of a mockingbird singing to everyone’s delight.

As you go in the Sierra, you realize that life is bustling there, where nature and humans follow a single path like good friends who take care of each other. In 1968, when the Plan Sierra del Rosario began to be developed, something became clear to the planners: the life of the locals would change, but without harming the environment. Thus everything was integrated and the new and modern dwellings seemed to have merged into the mountains.

Schools and medical centers mushroomed and electric power and cultural services arrived, which transformed the life of the peasant families, who could suddenly dream and make plans for the future.

Still, those peasants have not lost their eagerness to take care of the land and to preserve the trees, the birds and the rivers, to the point that Sierra del Rosario has been declared a Biosphere Reserve in Cuba.

If one day you are around Las Terrazas, in the middle of the Sierra del Rosario, you will surely fall in love with its charm, as I did. Every time I return to my childhood home, I stand at the front porch and gaze at the wonderful view in the distance. I have no doubt: with the experience of the years, I reaffirm that this is one of my favorite places in Cuba.