CAMAGÜEY.- Sometimes you meet a person and you don't know important issues about her, especially if she is simple and doesn't go divulging her virtues, but since life is in charge of putting things in their place, I learned that Dr. María Teresa Díaz Renón, Teresita, is a woman worth noting on a date like today, March 8.

In any case, it has been difficult, on International Women's Day there are many who deserve a special interview. She is a Consultant Professor, specialist in Dermatology, Master in Natural and Traditional Medicine (MNT) and Infectious Diseases and at just over 70 years old she remains in her hospital, the Manuel Ascunce Domenech university hospital.

—It is necessary to know about your beginnings in the world of Medicine...

—I began to study Medicine in 1969 at the Victoria de Girón Preclinical Institute, in Havana and I confess that there was some confusion in that decision. However, in a short time I began to feel a very particular love for my career, I already felt love for others and that is fundamental, without love for others it is impossible, you have to love others as you love yourself. I graduated in 1975.

- Why dermatology?

—When I rotated through that specialty, the Professors, great ones, impressed me, they put that little bug in your body. They were Teachers of Teachers and I have to mention them: Gladys Veloso Padrón, Enrique Llanos Clavería, Antonio Ayrado Carmenate and José Rodríguez Machado, the last three already deceased. It was the specialty that I liked the most, it stole my heart, it was the time when vertical internships began, that is, because of my curriculum they gave me that possibility in the sixth year and when I finished they placed me in Guaimaro for my postgraduate course, for three years, there I served people, in addition, from Cascorro, Camalote and Sibanicú, that was from 1975 to 1978.

"Then there was a need to send doctors to Algeria, and for Professor Nieves Atrio Mouriño to go to that mission, they brought me to the municipality of Camagüey and I was delayed for a year. Then I started it and in two years I was already a specialist, it was my time to that when we finished we were sent to the countryside for five years and I went to Guáimaro for the second time, with my second young son, but with the unconditional support of my mother, I made it thanks to her.

"I got up early in the morning and went to the interprovincial bus terminal to get on one of the buses that went to the eastern provinces and arrived in Guáimaro at 6:30 or 7 in the morning and returned in the afternoon, combining my dermatology consultations with the direction of the Victoria de Girón polyclinic of that municipality".

- What happened next?

—I already worked as a specialist at the Ignacio Agramonte polyclinic, there I was proud to experience how the Family Doctor and Nurse Program began, under the direction of Dr. Josefina Collot.

—And the "Manuel Ascunce"?

—It is a hospital institution that has always been respected, although I will tell you that I entered after a labor trial because another person aspired to the position, so it happened, they ruled in my favor.

"In this hospital, where I still work, I was secretary of the union, clinical and teaching deputy director, also secretary of the Party committee. Already a Consultant Professor since 2013, a category granted by the Ministry of Public Health. Ah, when they determine that I was a Consultant Professor, I was in an internationalist mission.

- How did you get into teaching?

—It was very difficult to reach the teaching category then and I did. If, as I said before, this is a race of love, being a teacher too, is something that I respect in a very special way, the first thing is to be an example and leader for the students, that's how I see Dr. Veloso, she is a reference with a very high bar.

- Did you mention an internationalist mission?

-More than one. In 2004, I went through very difficult times and lost my mother, who was my help and she is my guide even though she has passed away. In July of that year, I went to Burkina Faso for the Comprehensive Health Plan (PIS), everything was very limited, communications were different, there was no internet and the shock was very strong. I was formed under the concept that health was free and a right of all human beings and there I found a university and "public" hospital, put quotes around it, because the patients had to pay something to be treated and I even cried because I felt that I could do more for these people, but the system would not allow it.

"Another challenge I faced was the French language, I did not master it. I studied a lot to learn the language because, for example, in the visitor passes I was sure of my knowledge, but I could not express it in words and I insisted on solving it.

"I was made a member of the Dermatological Aesthetic Society of France for my performance and they invited me to participate in an international event that I couldn't attend.

"A day like today, I celebrated Women's Day and other allegorical dates for our country and when I came on vacation I brought presents to everyone regardless of class, of course, always with the Cuban flag in first place. The evaluation they gave me filled me with joy. In that country I treated many with HIV/AIDS, even infected pregnant women, children, people with leishmaniasis —a parasitic disease spread by a mosquito bite— something that I did not know in practice here, there it is a common product of poverty, where the only paved street was the main one, the others were made of red earth and there was an unbearable heat, I remember that to alleviate it I bathed and did not dry myself.

"I suffered, like everyone, from sandstorms. It was a very hard mission for two years and, at the same time, very beautiful because I left a mark that is worth more than any money, I still communicate with some of those people.

"I returned to my hospital, so they asked me for another mission, but in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, just as difficult, for just over a year, it was all in English and the country was at war. They picked us up on a bus, one day I took a while to approach it and it went out to pick up some nurses and unfortunately they were victims of a bomb, God helped me that day, now I would not be telling that story.

"Of course, like every experience in life, I also have pleasant memories, I made very good empathy with the nationals despite the fact that for Arab menos, women we are like a zero to the left, and in my case, worse because I was foreign, and for these reasons I had certain discrepancies, always with reason and decency. I spent around 18 months there until they left the most useful medical personnel for wartime, such as: surgeons, orthopedics..."

—Any other experience related to the idiosyncrasies of the Yemenites?

—In Ramadan I was a doctor on duty and I treated many young people who arrived without legs or other conditions caused by the war. I put an armchair between two walls to avoid bullets. Because of someone who seemed to be fleeing, they killed the one who lived on the floor above mine, we went through many limit moments, really, a lot of stress, we were three women and six men and we stayed there and did not move until the end we had conceived. For my children everything was wonderful, but the danger was daily. In case of great danger they would take us to the embassy.

—Did the missions end with the one in Yemen?

-No. I then went to Mozambique for 18 more months, I was in the province of Chimoio, where the climate was adorable, they called me Chiqui, Dra Bonita, they were very affectionate. There I was linked to the leprosy diagnosis work, they said they were free of that disease and I left them 52 identified cases.

- Anything curious?

—Now curious, there it was different. I gave consultations in the prison, that was not in my work content, but the inmates still had the right to be treated, in fact they did not pay me. Inside the house they tried to rape me and another colleague, they arrested them and those same people who we attended, they beat them to death when they arrived at jail for what they wanted to do to us.

"I keep in touch with doctors from there who studied in Cuba. I loved that place. The wife of one of them is a member of the National Assembly of Mozambique and we kept in touch. She was unforgettable.

"I returned to my "Manuel Ascunce". I like to work and teach and I do it for love. I feel that I can still give. I am from the provincial recruitment commission. I keep my consultations. I appreciate the deference for this interview because I am nothing special, that's how we Cuban doctors are, women as well as men, everyone who needs me I am here for them".

Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez