For two years, Lisais López Michelena has lived between numbers. She herself is one digit more than the many she deals with every day, empathetic, smiling, but without knowing their names. “I know most of them by the number of the nucleus —she affirms— her; they say that I changed them to their name”.
The La Cotorra winery, of the La Gloria Popular Council, in the city of Cienfuegos, occupies almost all the time of this woman, who works there as an integral salesperson. In 2021, at the worst stage of the Covid-19 pandemic, she arrived at the store, and it didn’t take that long for consumers to breathe new air.
“This unit suffered a lot from the winemakers. The neighbors themselves narrate that at nine in the morning they ran out of milk that comes for the children, and it has never happened to me. I control who the 46 minors who receive the product are, and when a nucleus has not come, I notify them through social networks, by phone, and I never leave any child without milk.
“The same happens with soy yogurt, which sometimes arrives at unpredictable times, and I look for a way for them to find out. I even stand in the corner of the warehouse and call out to those closest to me. That kind of thing – she maintains – people have liked it and I perceive it in the affection they feel for me ”.
As if the daily routine of opening “La Cotorra” before 7:00 a.m., closing almost at noon, returning at 3:00 p.m., and staying there until six in the afternoon, with the hustle and bustle that It involves the dispatch of “errands”, customer service and the constant handling of paperwork, Lisais came up with the idea of creating a WhatsApp group to optimize her work and provide a better service.
Tell me a little about your experience, how do you manage to find time for this initiative?
“It’s another job, and what a job ‘daddy’! Look, I had some telephone contacts from the nuclei, and one day I thought it would be easier if I had a group for this very thing, to inform people when the milk and yogurt arrive, because then they would come quickly. I did so, and I also added everything related to the warehouse, the box and the point of the ‘chopi’.
“Today anything can reach any of these units, and the neighbors find out because I dedicate myself to putting them in the group. Currently, I have added more than 160 participants, and it is something that they have loved”.
Faced with such occupations, what do you do to cope with housework?
“Actually, they reproach me for dealing with too much load, but the point is that I enjoy the work, and luckily, I have the support of a husband who prepares lunch, carries out several of the obligations inherent in any home, and, on the other hand, side, I always find the time to also help with family chores”.
Lisais is 40 years old and graduated as a secondary technician in the specialty of Gastronomic Services at the former Cienfuegos School of Economics. His professional career already exceeds two decades, after passing through dissimilar retail establishments in this city in the south-central part of Cuba. All that time she sums it up in a phrase that identifies her: “Sacrifice is sacrifice.”
How does the relationship with the neighbors flow in such difficult times when products are missing and many arrive late?
“The number of the nucleus, as I told you, for me represents everything, and thanks to that I know a little bit of the family life of each one, of their problems, because each one goes around telling something. I know which are the divided homes, who took one product, who the other, and I immerse myself a bit in that dynamic. I am one of the wineries that see you and ask about the sick person you had, although I always call them by number, because I have not yet managed to learn their names.
“With the current situation, I have to explain to consumers – most of them elderly people – the behavior of the supplies, so that they understand the distribution mechanism, which is now very complex. For that, I have an accumulation of papers and checkbooks, in order to guarantee that their products are carried in an organized manner. Sometimes they don’t understand, and then I have to take ‘four cups of patience’ and explain again”.
For those who never thought of working as a winemaker, especially after obtaining their law degree -through the distance education modality-, that fullness that transpires is greatly comforting. “I like what I do,” she confesses. “It’s such a joy to have people come and thank you, and I feel like it’s important work. I have lived in La Gloria since I was a child, the neighbors know me, and I cannot fail anyone. I couldn’t tell anyone that they lost a product knowing that they are from my community, from my neighbourhood… just imagine!” adds Lisais. She does it with contained emotion, but one that overwhelms her anyway, and she leads us to wonder what number could define such an extraordinary woman.