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The hope with which Daniela Arteaga Martínez left Cuba for Spain almost turned into tragedy. The young Cuban designer, 28 years old, was injured in the devastating train accident that occurred this Sunday in Adamuz, Córdoba, where the collision between two high-speed trains has left at least 40 dead and more than 150 injured.
Daniela was traveling on the Alvia train covering the Madrid-Huelva route, just hours after landing at Barajas Airport. She had received a scholarship from the International University of Andalucía (UNIA) to pursue a master's degree in Communication and Audiovisual Education, an academic project that she was embracing—with "great enthusiasm," according to the institution's report.
“I was really happy to come to Huelva,” confirmed the director of the Ibero-American Headquarters of La Rábida, María de la O Barroso, in statements collected by the local media Huelva 24.
The first hours following the accident were filled with total anguish. Since Sunday night, the university community of UNIA has attempted to locate the student without success.
The alarm grew when the railway company confirmed that Daniela was traveling in car 2, one of the most affected, which was hurled away upon impact. “It was impossible to contact her,” Barroso told Huelva Información, the first outlet to report the case, as the search extended through hospitals and emergency care centers.
The uncertainty was exacerbated by a key detail: Daniela has no family in Spain. Her family was following the events from Cuba, thousands of kilometers away, without clear news of her whereabouts. The university then devoted itself to managing communications with authorities and health services, amidst a night described as “endless” in the train station of Huelva.
The morning of Monday finally brought the expected confirmation. According to Huelva 24, the young Cuban was found alive and admitted to the Reina Sofía Hospital in Córdoba. “Despite the seriousness of the situation, she is stable,” Barroso stated, who, along with the rector of UNIA, went to the hospital to be with her and offer support.
More details about her health status were later provided by OnCuba. According to a close friend quoted by that source, Daniela suffered fractures in several ribs and bruising on her head, although her life is not in danger.
The family learned of his involvement in the incident after recognizing his face among the images of the rescued shown on television, a moment as unsettling as it was crucial for establishing contact from the Island.
From the academic sphere, messages filled with emotion also arrived. Ignacio Aguaded, the director of the master's program that Daniela would be attending, wrote to professors and students that the young woman had arrived “with the great excitement of starting the academic project of her life” and that now she was fighting to recover after being trapped “in a tangle of metal.” “She will be cared for here as if she were family,” he assured, according to Oncuba.
The case of Daniela adds to that of another Cuban affected by the tragedy. Tamara Margarita Valdés, a resident of Huelva, is among the missing persons after the collision, as reported by El País.
Her husband was desperately searching for her in Adamuz hours after the accident, in a scene that reflects the human drama left by this catastrophe among families marked by waiting and uncertainty.
The accident occurred when a train operated by Iryo, traveling from Málaga to Madrid, derailed and invaded the opposite track, colliding with the Alvia that was heading to Huelva. The first two carriages of the latter were the most severely affected as they fell down an embankment.
Spanish authorities have declared three days of official mourning as rescue efforts and investigations into the causes continue.
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