Cuba's health cooperation with Italy

Havana, October 25 (RHC)-- Cuba is represented at the Book Fair taking place in the City of Turin in the Italian region of Piamonte –the most important such event in Italy and one of the most important in Europe.

One and a half after a Cuban medical contingent from the country’s Henry Reeve Brigade of Doctors Specializing in Serious Epidemics and Disaster Situations arrived in the Italian, texts about Cuban reality and the country’s culture are on offer at the Stands of the Italy-Cuba Studies Center and the Treno de la Memoria.

The offer includes several texts in Italian language on Cuba’s international healthcare cooperation, among them ‘Diario de Turín. La solidaridad en tiempos de pandemia’ (The Turin Diary: solidarity in times of a pandemic) by writer and essayist Enrique Ubieta Gómez in coordination with Abril publishing house.

The author said it chronicles the one days that the Cuban health professionals spent in that Italian city, working alongside their Italian colleagues as front liners in the fight against Covid-19. It compiles several interviews and deep reflections on the experience, the pandemic and the lessons learned regarding human solidarity.

Piero Guarini, editor in chief of Diario de Turín and a solidarity with Cuba activist, said the book is instrumental in breaking the wall of silence around the Cuba.

He said that the arrival of the Cuban medical contingent in Turin in 2020 and the work they developed there was both ‘a miracle and a great opportunity.’

‘I would have taken us years to speak to the Italian people, especially young people, about Cuba’s solidarity and its healthcare cooperation with other peoples and nations the world over. And frankly, I don’t know if they would have understood, but what the Cuban health professionals accomplished in a few months really made a difference,’ Piero said.

Ubieta termed as ‘extraordinary’ the experience lived in Italy. He stressed that strong bonds of friendship were forged between Cubans and Italians.