Guantanamo.- At five o’clock in the morning, while the dew still moistens the earth, Noraida Lobaina Melian’s calloused fingers grip a herding rope. At this early hour, the silence is broken only by the calls of her awakening animals.
She smiles. “Here, no clock rules more than they do,” she says as her hand gently strokes the back of a newborn goat. Her ranch, La Gallega, is a small but vibrant domain located more than three kilometers from the urban center of El Salvador Municipality, in a place known as La Lola.
Born in Calabaza de Sagua, a hot and plain land in Holguín Province, Noraida learned from childhood that love for livestock is inherited like a surname. Her parents taught her to respect the animal’s muzzle, to read their gaze, and to know that a broken fence must be fixed before sunset.
However, it was love that brought her to these lands in El Salvador Municipality. Leaving her birthplace to put down roots elsewhere wasn’t easy, she admits, but today La Gallega is her pride and joy.
On her ranch, Noraida raises small livestock: goats and sheep of various breeds grazing in carefully divided plots. Each day she dedicates over six hours to animal care and herding—a time she balances with household chores.
Yet, she never complains. Her routine follows a steady pendulum: after an early breakfast, she heads out with the animals, inspects fences, controls parasites, records births, and returns by noon to tend to the home. In the afternoon, another round of herding continues until the sun sets.
From dawn till dusk, her story is written on the healthy backs of each growing animal and in every neighbor who seeks her advice. La Gallega is no ordinary ranch: it reflects a woman who needs no permission to herd her destiny.
As the sun sets over the El Salvador, Noraida Lobaina Melian closes the timber yard, dusts her clothes, and walks toward her home. Tomorrow, at five, the fields will await for her again—and as always, she will be there.
