[Marxism] Enoelia's Axe (Translated from Juventud Rebelde newspaper)

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(Specially translated for CubaNews by Ana Portela,
to whom great gratitude is due. This article which
deals with the life and work of a Cuban woodcutter
who happens to be female, was published in the
newspaper JUVENTUD REBELDE, December 17, 2003.

(There are many fascinating stories in the island's
media which aren't translated in Granma International.
They shed additional light on the society and the
culture which is being constructed in Cuba today.

(In the United States, this would be called a story
about women in non-traditional employment, and it's
definitely that, and here in Cuba, too. It's both a
serious explanation, and has a special charm and so
I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as I did. With the
translator, we had a few laughs over the correct way
to translate the term "hachera" into English, since
"hatchet-woman" wouldn't really convey what's being
suggested here, nor axewoman, either. We thought for
a moment about using "lumberjack", but, of course,
"lumberjill" would have been more, uh, appropriate
but it would have been an awkward construction and
so woodcutter probably is the best translation <g>.)
Anyway, we're sure you'll enjoy reading the story.)
====================================================

JUVENTUD REBELDE
December 17, 2003
ENOELIA'S AXE

* Translation note: Enoelia, the interviewee, is a
woodcutter, known as the axewoman and will be referred
to by her name. The carbon ovens referred to have been used
in Cuba since the time of the colony to make carbon as a
source of fuel.

ENOELIA'S HATCHET
By Yahily Hernández Porto

At twelve this sweet and slender girl learned to handle the
axe with her father. Today, at the age of 33, Enoelia
Palomino Bernardo earns her living felling trees and making
carbon ovens.

A woman woodcutter? ... puzzles those who visit Najasa, in
the southeastern province of Camagüey, and it happened to
me.

At first I thought it was some form of joke or an
exaggeration the stories about this woman who earns her
living felling trees and making carbon ovens in the Empresa
de Flora y Fauna (Flora and Fauna firm) in the region of
Belén.

Those who don?t know her imagine she is a strong and brawny
woman, but coming face to face with her, surprise is the
usual reaction.

Enoelia Palomino Bernardo is an unassuming woman of 33,
sweet, naturally polite, strong willed, small and very
slender. She weighs 96 pounds (35.8 kg) and measures one
meter and 45 centimeters.

You may ask:

? From where do you get so much strength?

? From the heart, journalist, from the heart.

? This was her first answer. Later a warm dialogue would
follow where anecdotes were not lacking.

- Enoelia ? what made you decide to take up this line of
work?

? My father, Arbelio Palomino was a woodcutter and carbon
worker in this same region. As a child of 12, I would take
up my father?s axe and would cut wood for the kitchen
stove. Every since, as a child, I was interested in this
work and when the time came to do it, I was neither afraid,
nor even embarrassed.

?I learned looking at my old man. Now I can use the axe
with both hands that many men don?t know how to do. I lived
in the La Carbonera barrio. One day a team of hatchet men
came and I began, a little bit at the time, to visit them
and watch them. Things were made easy for me because my
stepfather was part of the team. I looked all around and
the idea popped in my head. It was then I decided ? I don?t
know if it was because of tradition or because my fate was
already set to become a hatchet woman?.

? Was it easy to become an axe-woman?

? No way!! It caused a lot of talk ? let me tell you! At
the time I was fifteen, divorced and with my first daughter
of six months, Yudelkis González Palomino. Many thought
that, for this reason, I would give up doing what I wanted
to do. My will demonstrated that it wasn?t the case. Today
I am a full fledged woodcutter.

? How did you manage with your first daughter?

? With my first daughter, with the second and third. There
were no problems. I managed the same for all three. They
became my inspiration. I would put them in the shade, very
close to me, under a Cuban cart that has a zinc floor where
I placed a crib mattress.

?I would bring along their bottle of milk and nappies in a
knapsack. I would lay them down in their pillows and, at
night, I would cover them to protect them from the cold. I
would chat with Yude, Yanet and Yasmani between felling the
trees, until, one by one they went to school and things
became easier. I never felt loneliness in the woods ?
either by day or night when I kept watch on my ovens?.

? And the pregnancies?

? After giving birth and the forty day rest period I began
work again. I always had the unconditional support of my
husband, at home and in the woods.

? Were their any other obstacles?

? Yes, of course and I think, perhaps, the hardest. At the
beginning they did not accept my. The head of personnel,
Lidia Cañete, said that I could not be hired. Every time
she came around to see the workers I would fall on her. One
day, after so much haggling she gave in and sent the papers
to Havana and I was given a contract.

?In the brigade I met Luis, my husband and father of the
other two children. Male chauvinism started right there and
worrying about what his fellow workers would say, because
he was also a woodcutter: worry about the bad nights and
watching over the ovens, one thing or another and hundreds
of more protests.

?I kept up my stance and decided my own future. I told Luis
that my work came first and everything was settled in the
family. He gave in and stopped protesting?.

? What did you do to shut the up those who criticized you?

? When the woodcutters saw that I could keep up and that I
filled up the wood cart with about 23.8 feet of wood (about
four cuerdas), just like the men, they zippered up their
mouths and accepted me. Now I have been a National Vanguard
for three consecutive years.

? What is cutting trees down like?

? The secret is in feeling the music of the woods, it pulls
at you. It fills me with satisfaction when the trunk lets
off splinters and falls to the ground.

?No tree is alike. They have their characteristics. For
example: the carob gives me the most trouble. It doesn?t
loosen its bark as easily as the cherry-wood or the Ateje.
I always have to give it a few extra cuts and hole out the
trunk. I don?t give up, no matter how thick. They always
end up being carbon.

?Everything in life requires special skills. I cut up the
wood to four feet length logs,

?I study the site before starting work. I stand on the most
flexible side and toward the inclination of the tree.

?When get to the woods I know how many cuerdas (a pile of
wood of approximately 1,75 x 2 meters) I can cut. The woods
talk to me and tell me where to start chopping. Sometimes
do one or one and a half cuerdas, never less. It all
depends on the yield of the timber.

? The most difficult?

? Look, in this kind of work each person does his/her own,
from felling the tree to filling the carbon sacks, but in
this long process the most difficult for me is to get the
limber onto the cart. The rest is easy.

? How do you make a carbon oven?

? For the oven to be resistant it needs to have three
shafts deep into the earth to keep the logs from rolling
down.

?Later, I tie them up, cover with grass and soil, set it on
fire keep watch on the mouth to prevent it from burning.
Lastly, I take the carbon, freshen it and sack it.

?I do all these steps in three days. What takes longest is
cutting the wood. For this reason as soon as I tie them up,
I start cutting wood for another oven.

? What are your dreams?

? Life has given me so many. I don?t want anything more. 
I only would like to have a strong health to continue
chopping wood.

? Your preferences ??

? Apart from my work, flowers and romantic music.

? And at home ??

? My life is as normal as any housewife. Being a mother,
daughter and wife for more than 18 years is very
comforting. I have to admit that cooking is my second
favorite activity, after wood cutting. I try to keep up
with my housework and, if I can?t, my husband understands
and helps out.

? Doesn?t it bother you to go into the woods so uncovered?

? I?m not afraid of bugs. They are my friends. As for the
sun, it doesn?t burn and, as you can see, I?m always under
the tree branches. I feel constrained in trousers and shirt
that is why I prefer blouses and shorts.

? And love between two woodcutters ??

? I think that Luis was intelligent and clever. His first
present was very special and unique. It was not a flower,
although they were never missing. He gave me the axe I use
still today. That is how he started to court me.

?Luis doesn?t care about my hands or my calluses, or my
fingernails. His only concern is to make me happy.



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