Gretel Isabel Fuentes ROLERA (ROLLER)
Forward, Leaf by Leaf H
er story is like that of many women in Latin America. The third child of a single mother who gave her all every day to pull her family forward, 28-year-old Gretel Isabel Fuentes Flores has also become a single mother of two daughters. However, she now holds the opportunity for a better life for her family, built amidst tobacco, leaf by leaf. Born in La Trinidad, Estelí, Nicaragua, as the youngest of three siblings –two sisters and one brother– she had to support the family economy from a very young age. She would go out with her mother to sell tortillas, cajeta (caramel), and other homemade products they prepared themselves. On a daily basis, half her time was for work and the other for study, but Gretel left school every day to search for more formal employment. “I told my mother I
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didn’t want to study anymore; I wanted to work to help her. Because any child, when they see their mother cry over their economic situation, only thinks of helping.” Thus, after selling her mother’s products, she found her first job at age 15, entering a cigar factory to learn the stemming process (despalillo) –which consists of removing the veins from cured tobacco leaves– and later had the chance to learn the rolling process of the cigars.