Marta remembers her recruitment by the guerrilla at age 14 and describes her work as a medical worker within the organization.
- Chapter:
- Chapter 5: Guerrilla Experiences
- Interviewee:
- Marta
Transcription
Some comrades came to my house to recruit me for the guerrilla. I had not even turned fifteen years old yet, I had only been in Mesa Grande for five months. But I was almost fifteen. I cried and told them I didn't want to go. "I don't want to go," I said, "I'm not going to leave my dad." My mom stayed in Mesa Grande. "I’m not going to leave my dad, because I'm in charge of making him food." "No," they told me, "You're going to join us. Otherwise we're going to take your dad." So I cried, and told them no, that I didn't want to go, that I didn't feel capable. "You'll go there, we'll give you some shoes, we'll give you clothes, you will be with us, you will be taken care of." Anyway, my dad said, "Just go, I will see what to do about food. Reynaldo's wife is here." That was my brother. So I got three changes of clothes ready and I left with him. He took me to join the guerrilla, to get some training as a nurse. I took a course in nursing for fifteen days. But it was in the midst of wartime, and I was being trained at the same camp we were staying at. We had a hospital for the wounded. The airplanes would come and drop bombs on us, so we would run away to hide somewhere. It was all-out war. After training, they enlisted me in a guerrilla column as a nurse to heal the wounded. They assigned me tasks. After that, I started going out with the comrades to do my job. That was the job that I had. I was a nurse.