A Cuban woman living in Spain is chosen "Railway Worker of the Year" by international magazine

June 5, 2022

Cuban Rosalina Reyes Gea, locomotive driver for Spanish company Renfe, has been distinguished by the magazine International Railway Journal (IRJ) as Railway Worker of the Year, for her "work training locomotive drivers in Saudi Arabia, which constitutes an innovative project for the country and its railway system", reported the company Renfe.

Reyes confessed to Renfe that she misses from Cuba "my family, above all. I am the youngest of six sisters and I return whenever I can".

"I also miss the climate, especially at first. I remember the first time as if it were yesterday; leaving Havana with the thermometer showing 31 degrees and landing in Madrid at 16. A passing cold, nothing compared to the 4 degrees below zero in Miranda de Ebro, the city where I lived the first months". "I remember feeling inside a freezer and, despite the heating at full power, finding no comfort. It was a temporary acclimatization until living in Madrid, which also seemed like a cold city to me but not as much", she said.

The Cuban is married to a Renfe locomotive driver. "We both are passionate about our work and when we travel to other places, the profession is carried within us".

"In fact, we have an anecdote from one of our visits to Cuba. We were driving the car and at a railroad crossing a train suffered a breakdown that prevented it from continuing its route. Both of us headed without thinking twice to the locomotive driver and offered to help in whatever was necessary. Camaraderie arose immediately and, with it, the exchange of experiences, knowledge and curiosities", she recounted.

Taken from: A Cuban woman living in Spain is chosen "Railway Worker of the Year" by international magazine (cubitanow.com)