Tell us
about your nurses' training.
I started training without being old enough. I always wanted to
be a nurse. I love nursing. To study nursing, you had to be 17
years old. But the local government in the town where my mother
worked as a farmer wanted me to study; they wanted my abilities,
so they made an exception for my age. It was a boarding school
in Sagua la Grande in the province of Las Villas in central Cuba.
I was not the first-ranking student in the school, but I was the
youngest, so I did my best.
Then I was
selected when Fidel Castro called for people to study preventive
medicine. I specialized in preventive medicine and after I graduated,
I started working in Sagua la Grande. I worked with farmers. The
public health and the medical service were not good in that area,
and they needed a nurse. They needed my aptitude. It was my vocation.
Did you
take a certification or licensing exam to become a nurse?
No. You graduated and you were a nurse.
What sort
of work did you do?
I visited the farmers' homes, I taught them sanitary ways. I advised
pregnant women to go to the clinic in town for prenatal care.
I inoculated children. I worked all alone in the forest. I had
to ride a horse from one place to another. When I discovered a
patient who needed a doctor, I would let the doctor in town know
and he would go to the patient or the patient would be brought
to town. But the farmers didn't like to go.
What kind
of supplies did you have?
The town supplied me with what I needed. I had supplies for inoculations,
equipment for checking blood pressure, a stethoscope, alcohol,
bandages. I had pretty much everything I needed. It was mainly
for inoculations for children and pregnant women-tetanus, BCG
[antituberculosis] and others. The women didn't want to go to
town to have their babies. There was this old woman who delivered
the babies, and I saw she had long, dirty fingernails. This was
not good.
How were
you received?
When I knocked on a door, the farmers would close it. They didn't
like it. They did not have good hygiene. But when they didn't
let me in, I would go around to the back door and insist. I got
to know them. I ate with them and little by little taught them
better hygiene. When I started, they didn't even wash their hands.
Today, we
have a different system; the job I was doing doesn't exist. We
have doctors everywhere and the very old people have been moved
to town. Most of the children I inoculated are professionals today.
Why did
you leave nursing?
The job was hard, all the time away from home. I wanted to work
in town and it wasn't possible. After that, I did many things.
I worked as a secretary, then for the [National] Institute of
Agrarian Reform in communications. I moved to Havana in 1970,
but I didn't find work as a nurse. I had been out of nursing for
too long. It was not the same situation then as today, and I couldn't
find a job in the place where I lived, so I decided to leave nursing.
I had to work in town. In Havana, I went to work at the National
Religious Affairs Department as a secretary and did that for 17
years. Now, I work as a secretary at the church, which is pretty
ironic.
What was
the biggest challenge of nursing?
Working in a hospital room with children. I worked in the town's
municipal hospital for a while, in gastroenterology. The hardest
part was when a child died.
What would
you like to ask nurses in the United States?
I would like to interchange experiences. All my life I have loved
pediatric nursing. I haven't forgotten anything. But the science
has advanced. I'm not the age to be a nurse anymore.
What would
you like to tell nurses in the United States?
I would like nurses from both countries to one day experience
interchange. They could get our experiences and we theirs. I'd
be glad to collaborate, even though I'm not an active nurse. Once
you're a nurse, you're always a nurse.
[Editor's
note: Melissa Gaskill traveled to Cuba under a specific license
from the U.S. government for religious activities. The church
where Olivera works has an ongoing partnership agreement with
Covenant Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas. The two organizations
are working together, for example, to improve conditions for pediatric
patients at the Instituto Nacional de Oncologia y Radiologia in
Havana. This interview was conducted through an interpreter.]
