Of Women and Salt

(Dolores, Camagüey, 1959)

Cuba in 1959 is on the verge of a revolution, and Daniel Hernández, Dolores’s husband, is beginning to politically awaken. Dolores thinks that revolution is still far from Camagüey and is concerned that if anyone hears Daniel listening to rebel radio, President Batista’s men will come and kill them; however, when she gently expresses her fears to Daniel one night, he viciously beats her. When Fidel Castro calls for men to join the revolution, Daniel goes to the mountains to join him. While he’s gone, Dolores and their two girls have no income and must eat whatever they have on their own grounds; Dolores looks for work, but no one will hire her because she’d have to bring her two-year-old daughter, Elena. On the other hand, she feels more relaxed, and they even take a day trip to the province capital.

Despite their poverty, Dolores is disappointed when Daniel returns; however, seven-year-old Carmen is ecstatic. Daniel looks grizzled and exhausted, and he tells Dolores that he killed someone two days earlier. After that, he begins coming home drunk and angry, and he beats her; Carmen is old enough to hear the beatings, but Daniel never hits the children, and Carmen continues to admire her father.