Sitting in front of the sacrarium in a wheelchair Maria Emilia hear Mass every Sunday morning at nine o'clock in the Church of Monserrate. Maria Emilia is 115 years old, has a lucid mind and a body that seemingly resists the inevitable, happy and cruel, passing of time. Her legs have begun to fail but she retains a prodigious inner strength that has allowed her to be present and be faithful to her service to the people and history of the southern city of Cienfuegos. In her hands, she is holding several copies of Christian Life catholic pamphlet, which she distributes at the end of the Mass, as if her life's mission was not yet complete. I walk over to her place and remind her that we had made arrangement to meet up this Sunday morning. The gentleman who takes her home sitting on a bench behind us. I bend my knees and cautiously approach the recorder. Maria Emilia's voice is shaky, but nice. "There were 13 of us growing up” Maria Emilia patiently tells me, we got along very well. From little nippers my mum taught us to share, to pray, to read ... I remember that in the...