Labor Heroes are honored on May Day.

Of the nine Heroes of Labor of Matanzas, the six who attended the activity assured their defense in the May Day parade

Tomas Torres, from the Sugar Workers Union always attends with his daughter.

The celebration of the Heroes of Labor of the Republic of Cuba was once again a high note in the days of activities for May Day, the World Proletariat Day, which in Matanzas calls for a historic parade, as urged by the trade union movement.

However, the traditional meeting did not have the joy of other moments and it is logical. Last April 8, Hero José Luis Silva Menéndez, the thermo-energetic engineer of Empresa Eléctrica de Matanzas, who kept working from his home until he was admitted to the provincial Clinical-Surgical-Docent Hospital Faustino Pérez, the place of his death, passed away.

That is why the minute of silence and eternal gratitude to a man who gave laboriousness and knowledge in the field of transformers, a world to which he was linked for 63 years.

Former electricity collector Daniel Mesa, third from left, is the only Hero of Labor in the municipality of Unión de Reyes.

«Those who have been in the front line of the Revolution are the Heroes of Labor of the Republic of Cuba. Whether or not they have gone to Girón, whether or not they have internationalist missions,» said Major General José Antonio Carrillo Gómez, national president of the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution.

“You have made the Revolution at work and therefore you have the merit of being in the front row,” he reiterated to those who hold such a relevant honorary title.

“On behalf of the combatants, we would like to congratulate you on this day in which you are being honored, and at the same time we feel honored to have you here,” said the Major General.

Alejandro Ventosa, in the foreground, is the Hero of Labor of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant.

Carrillo Gómez was meeting with combatants at the convention center of the Cuban Workers’ Central (CTC) in Yumurinos when he learned of the presence of the Heroes, and went to meet them to show his admiration for these men of the Golden Star.

Osmar Ramirez, Secretary General of the Provincial Committee of the Cuban Workers’ Central Union, expressed to the press the example of those who continue to encourage the new generations to turn the love for work into a daily fact, and to be inspired by these Heroes, some of whom are still linked to their collectives, doing their part in the production of goods and services.

At almost 92 years old, Domingo, the Hero decorated in 1984, still does not plan to retire.

Among those honored were Reynaldo Castro, the first National Labor Hero, famous for his exploits as a sugar cane cutter; Domingo González Estupiñán, who at almost 92 years of age is still working at the Telecommunications Company, Etecsa, as well as Alejandro Ventosa at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant, a site he considers to be his combat trench.

Of the nine Heroes of Labor of Matanzas, the six who attended the activity assured their defense in the May Day parades, a date that “we must turn into another victory like that of April 1961 when the attack on Playa Girón took place”, they encouraged.

Photos by the author

Written by Eva Luna Acosta.