12 de febrero de 2025

Radio 26 – Matanzas, Cuba

Emisora provincial de Matanzas, Cuba, La Radio de tu Corazón

United in life and in the Tourism Union.

As she stood up, reached the microphone and began her speech, Estrella Sánchez Berrío stared at her daughter and suddenly relived the life as a union leader that she bequeathed to Yarisleydis Torriente.

As she stood up, reached the microphone and began her speech, Estrella Sanchez Berrio stared at her daughter and suddenly relived the life as a union leader that she bequeathed to Yarisleydis Torriente.

The general secretary of the trade union bureau of the Meliá Las Antillas hotel in Varadero, always had it clear. No responsibility, no matter how big, could take her so far away from her only offspring. She would show up with the little one at activists’ meetings, affiliates’ assemblies, wherever she was allowed to take her.

At that time, her father was also a union leader and Yarisleydis Torriente began to receive an influence that injected in her blood the bug to defend the employees. So it was easy for her to write Bachelor of Laws on her 12th grade report card, a career path to what would come later.

When she agreed to stop practicing law to become a professional member of the Hotel and Tourism Workers Union (STHT) in the municipality of Cardenas, she never imagined the surprises that life had in store for her.

If it is an enormous merit for me to attend an event like this Third National Conference for the first time, to do so in the same delegation as my mother is a tremendous emotion, also because it may be her last. She has participated in all of them and, as she has already turned 60, she plans to retire, she confesses with a lump in her throat.

She remembers the time when someone was needed to direct the STHT in Cárdenas and they proposed it to me… I said yes, as long as they kept my place in Tourism. Yarisleydis listened to him and said: «Mommy, if they would allow me, I would gladly go in your place».

Yarisleydis has just been elected as a non-professional member of the new National Secretariat of the STHT, and for six months she has held the highest responsibility of this organization in the province of Matanzas.

Happy for her achievements, Estrella confesses. By a natural movement, I have just finished my term in the STHT National Committee. Now it is her turn to represent well the affiliates and workers all over the country. I wish her success and yes, I will support her as I have always done.

The passion, the tireless struggle, I owe to my mother. She is my example, and she is already the example of my two little ones. Humility, not believing that I know it all, and continuing to learn from Matanzas leaders who are a union school, are some of her advice, Yarisleydis assures.

«My pride in her is as immense as my duty to do my part well. Now my daughter is my boss,» she says with an admiration that is hard to hide.

Photo: Founder of STHT, Estrella bequeathed her passion for union work to her daughter. Photo: From the author.

Written by Eva Luna Acosta Armiñán.

 

 

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