Near the offices of a Credit and Service Cooperative I saw the bust of José Martí and a replica of the house where he was born in Paula Street. I was glad because Marti wisely spoke for his time and for those who had to come about the earth and man, if man serves, he said, the earth serves.
Marti’s apothegm is appropriate to benefit from what nature bequeathed us for our benefit. In a territory like this, eminently agricultural, it is essential to approach the wisdom of the Master when he affirmed that "the earth produces incessantly ... if those who live in it want to get rid of misery, cultivate it so that in all seasons it produces more than necessary to live: that is how the essential is enough, the fortuitous is prevented, and, when the fortuitous thing does not come, the productive savings that true wealth develops are begun. "
And that wealth comes as a result of union, of the knowledge of the lands where it is cultivated, of the sowing in time, of knowing the secrets of a nature that every time is indomitable, of not forgetting the accumulated natural experience but by its side always the most effective knowledge of science and technology.
Our field needs men and women who work with intelligence to get the best fruits of the crops. To the generational change it is urgent to assimilate the legacy of his predecessors to strengthen the continuity, so that these are the technicians, agricultural engineers, the future, but next to it the school must contribute the knowledge of the theory and practice in order to favor the relay formation.
Because, what would be of a country where its citizens disdain the countryside? With wisdom Martí makes us think about it: "In the villages that have to live off agriculture, governments have a duty to teach preferably the cultivation of fields. It is being committed ... a great mistake: in towns that live almost completely from the products of the countryside, men are educated exclusively for urban life, and they are not prepared for life
peasant ".
That and more should call us to meditation, to draw conclusions, to look closely at the bust of the apostle of Cuban independence that as a symbol is in our cooperatives, not to be passionate if not to keep clean, impeccable surroundings as clean was his executory A man of torrent thought, who even in the midst of torment had time to talk and write about art, literature, poetry, history, sports, science, and agriculture. On the 165th anniversary of his birth we perpetuate his memory with the daily observance of the duty that belongs to each one of us.
