For nonagenarian Pepa growing old is not a problem, in fact, María Josefa Valdés Ortiz (Pepa for family and friends) is almost 95 years old and still tells anecdotes with admirable memory, coherence and chronology of the story.
This nonagenarian great-grandmother from Holguin amazingly preserves her autonomy and active spirit that has accompanied her since her youth, when she emerged as an industrious, devoted and generous woman.
Encouraged by the care of her family, after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, she was the protagonist of events that reaffirmed her sense of duty and commitment in favor of fair causes.
She shows with joy the recognitions granted to her for having been a literacy teacher and for having participated since the foundation of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) in different tasks for which she holds the “September 28” Distinction and the “30 Years of Vigilance and Combativity Seal”, awarded by that mass organization, and others such as the “Commemorative Medal 40th Anniversary of the Revolutionary Armed Forces”.
As a worker she exercised humble but useful trades for the society: “I made many activities that were entrusted to me, I picked coffee, corn, I swept streets voluntarily in San German”, town to the south of the province of Holguin that saw her to be born on September 10, 1928 and that granted her years later by its merits and path of life the condition of Illustrious Daughter.
Satisfied of her social performance she remembers her modest but valuable contribution as a janitor in educational institutions and her cooperation in different mobilizations of support to the sugar harvest.
It was in the Empresa de Servicios Comunales where she remained for the longest time until her retirement as the person in charge of the custody and sanitation of the only playground in her municipality at that time. Thus she became the guardian of children “they would leave the children there, [they played] and then they would pick them up”. A generous and responsible attitude that earned her the respect and affection of the community.
But she is also remembered as a talented cultural promoter: “I was the founder of the danzón club, I like singing very much, I used to sing Bolero and Tango in the house of culture and the museum (…) I belonged to the municipal choir (…) What I would like now is to be younger to dance danzón, I love dancing, music, everything Cuban”.
She remembers how, at the request of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), she taught embroidery classes in her home to many women who later got jobs thanks to those handicraft lessons.
By chance, when she was only 15 years old, cartomancy came into her life and since then she has been using her cards without any profit motive with the sole purpose of doing good: “I dedicate myself to good deeds, to helping people, the neediest and giving them good advice”, whose successes are surprising…
With the experience and wisdom treasured for more than nine decades, she trusts in the Revolution “because it does not abandon anyone and the Government has done a lot for the elderly”.
Her smile reveals the kindness of her heart, the simplicity of her soul and a healthy aging: “I feel protected by the Revolution and my children, I am happy. The only thing I ask the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre is that she saves Cuba, that she saves the world because we do not wish ill to anyone”.
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