National Centre for Medical Sciences Information-Infomed| 10 April 2026 |
Responsible: Mirta Núñez Gudás – Special Information Services Department
On the day that the mayor presented the medal of the city of San Pedro Carchá to the young Cuban doctor Yunior Proenza González, throughout the Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz the sky dawned dark, as if the jungle were preparing an ancient ceremony that men could not understand.
The rain had begun to fall early, with the obstinacy of one who wishes to bless the earth before an important event.
Mayor Erwin Catún Maquín pronounced beautiful words in Spanish and in Q’eqchí, the Mayan language spoken in the region. After the applause, the slim boy, with a short beard and green eyes, wore a red ribbon with a small metal around his neck, unable to contain the story he represented. He was among the citizens and local leaders who had contributed to community development over the past three years. Everyone was amazed that someone so young would carry such a great responsibility on his shoulders.
Then something happened that no one could explain.
Dr. Yunior left the municipality, the rain continued to fall with the same stubbornness, soaking the roads, roofs, trees and mountains. But when the drops fell on him, they drifted gently, as if invisible hands were pulling them away from his body.
An old Q’eqchí woman said in a low voice:
“The jungle adopted him”.
No one dared to contradict her.
Since that day, when he walks between paths, the rain accompanies him like a patient mother. She barely brushes against it, as if protecting it. Because while men gave him a metal medal, the jungle granted him something older: the silent right to be one of its own.
Of course, Dr. Yunior continued to work as if none of that was extraordinary.
He had arrived from his distant Chaparra, in the eastern province of Las Tunas, as part of the Cuban medical brigade in Guatemala. It was his first time away from home, from the medical school where he was a surgical assistant, from the offices where he made his debut as a comprehensive general practitioner, even far from the one where his father worked – now in Venezuela – and where he was accompanied by the same nurse who for years cured patients with “his daddy” in his beloved Chaparra.
The first days in the Guatemalan jungle he walked in silence, as travelers do who do not want to disturb the land they walk on. He understood that he was entering a territory where nature was not landscape, but destiny.
He has climbed into rustic boats and let himself be carried away by the current. Sometimes the river rises suddenly, as if it wanted to put it to the test, but it always ends up letting it pass, as if it recognized in it a necessary man.
The boatmen began to say that the river respected him. And in Cobán, Corozal, Chicojl or Paquísil, when nature respects someone, the jungle begins to listen to them.
In those intricate villages of Alta Verapaz there are almost never beds or mattresses. There Dr. Yunior has slept on hard boards, bathed in the water of the river and got up before the sun to listen to the heartbeat of life in sick children and in mothers who wait with eyes full of fear.
Sometimes she has had to walk four hours to get to a consultation, and in that time she has told the trees that what strikes her most about those lands is that many women have no limits to give birth, that they depend on the decision of the husband and that the children arrive without rest. He has succeeded in introducing family planning, convincing mothers of the importance of vaccines and five-year implants, and thus improving the quality of life of these women and their children.
In her sessions as a teacher, she teaches nurses to look patiently. He talks to them about vaccination, prevention, care, habits and hygiene like someone who sows invisible seeds in a land that has learned to resist without complaint.
That was why one day the children began to wait for him as one expects a returning relative, the mothers learned to trust his hands and the elderly to greet him with respect.
Now, as evening falls, the rivers have begun to worry about the moment when Dr. Yunior will leave these lands.
Will the mountains continue to keep their history?
They say that on the day of departure it will rain for three days in a row.
They say that the river will carry his name to the sea.
And they also say that when he walks in the rain again anywhere in the world, she will recognize him and gently turn away from his face, as if she were still protecting him.
Because there are men to whom nature does not give a medal, but an invisible family.
And Dr. Yunior Proenza González, without knowing it, already belongs forever to the jungle of Alta Verapaz.
By: Mylenys Torres Labrada
Comments (7)
- Beautiful writing. I know him closely in the almost 18 months we spent together in the jungles of Ecuador. Milenys Torres, an excellent journalist, tells the story lived by Dr. Junior just the way he is. A quiet young man, but with strong fists and legs, with great preparation, although to say a Cuban doctor, he falls into redundancy because of how well known the quality of medical schools is in the world. Thank you dear Milenys for publishing the story that is repeated in the more than 400 Cuban professionals who are members of the Cuban Medical Brigade who provide medical care in 16 of the 22 departments that the land of the Quetzal hasby Sonia Bess Constantén – 10 April, 2026, 4:01 pm
- Recognizing the work of a Cuban doctor in hard-to-reach communities is honoring much more than a profession: it is exalting human dedication in its purest form.
These doctors go where others do not, they walk long roads, they face shortages and even so they do not fail in their commitment. In each consultation, they provide not only care, but also hope, comfort and dignity to people who have often been forgotten.
Their work is an example of solidarity, of authentic vocation and of love for life. They are true guardians of health, capable of transforming realities with science, sensitivity and sacrifice#BCGuatemala #CubaPorLaSaludby Isabel Reyes – 10 April, 2026, 5:21 pm - Cuban doctors have always been characterized by our humility and solidarity, the doctor with his work shows that when you love your profession there is no distance that stands in the way of helping the most needy.by Denis – 10 April, 2026, 5:29 pm
- Congratulations Dr. Example of humanism, solidarity, altruismby Belkis – 10 April, 2026, 5:47 pm
- Dr. Yunior Proenza is a living example de.la professionalism and love with which Cuban doctors work not only in Guatemala, but in any country in the world only with the satisfaction of a duty fulfilled. Greetings brotherby Raiza – 10 April, 2026, 8:08 pm
- #MédicosYNoBombas
#CubaSalvaVidas
#CubaInspira #CubaEsSolidaridad
#BMCGuatemalaby Magdelidia Zalazar Naranjo – 10 April, 2026, 8:32 pm - #CubaCooperaby Magdelidia Zalazar Naranjo – 10 April, 2026, 8:38 pm
- Beautiful and deeply moving testimony.
Stories like Dr. Yunior’s remind us that true greatness is not measured by medals, but by love, dedication and the real impact on people’s lives. The work of Cuban doctors continues to sow hope, dignity and humanity in the neediest corners of the world.
Honour to those who, like him, turn their profession into a mission and their vocation into a bridge between peoples.
by Daisy Matos Romero – 11 April, 2026, 9:59 am
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 