When she was a 14-year-old girl, Iris Romero decided to go to work because she wanted to help her mother and “so we could have chairs, because we only had small stools… and my first paycheck went toward that.” Since then, she has remained at the Clasificadora y Exportadora de Tabaco in Danlí, Honduras, where as a supervisor she oversees 200 women, and in 2023, she earned a degree in Accounting and Finance.
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She was born in Danlí and, after finishing primary school, began looking for a job alongside some friends. The first place they went was Plasencia, where they required parental authorization: “My mother agreed and disagreed at the same time, but in the end, she accepted and signed.”
She first learned to remove stems (despalillar), “but later they sent me to tie hands (moñar), to the kiln where the tobacco is spread out. I know how to dampen the bundles (gavillas), sort, grade… I know many processes.” For the past 12 years, she has served as a Leaf Sorting Supervisor, a role that also involves training staff.
Pre-selected leaves from the farm arrive at her sector to be classified. This encompasses several processes: quality sorting involves separating tobacco for wrappers (capa), XL, and binders (capote), for example, as well as separating “dirty” leaves from clean ones. Regarding texture, it requires touching the leaves to differentiate them by thickness and color, from light to dark.
The goal is to classify the tobacco for sale as leaf tobacco (tabaco en rama). “The product might be shipped as is once it is classified and separated, but that depends on the destination and what is to be done with the product.”
Iris is “grateful to God, who has given me the opportunity to teach other women the knowledge I have, because these are my people. I feel very proud, in love with my work and with what I have learned.”
She married at 18, and now two of her three children are professionals. Perhaps this motivated her to pursue a degree in Accounting and Finance, from which she graduated in 2023 at the age of 44. “Imagine, with what my family and I have achieved, looking at my 11-year-old, I aim for more –that he will be a professional in the years God grants us. We have many goals, many objectives.”
As simple as it was significant, the purchase of those chairs with the proceeds of her labor drove her even then to buy lumber to expand her mother’s house and later to buy a bed of her own, leaving the one she shared with her brother. “Now, from the position I am in, I aspire to more. I want to go to another country, to promote what I do… God will give me the opportunity one day.”
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