This September 13 marks the 26th anniversary of the physical departure, in Havana, of the prominent Cuban scientist, geographer, archeologist, speleologist and revolutionary Antonio Núñez Jiménez who, in 1995, the Speleological Society of Cuba and the Cuban Society of Geography awarded him the status of Fourth Discoverer of Cuba, as a continuator of his predecessors Christopher Columbus, Alexander de Humboldt and Fernando Ortiz, for his contribution in the field of subway Cuba.
The Speleological Society of Cuba, created in 1940, was a youthful creation that over the years traveled through every corner of the country, reporting and rectifying elevations, river sources, caves, among other geographical features; its importance lies not only in being initiators of the systematic exploration of the Cuban subway world, but also in having undertaken the total study of Cuban geography, its nature and its history.
In 1945 he organized the Geographic Expedition to Oriente with very important scientific results in the fields of Geography, Archeology and Speleology, such as the ascent to Turquino Peak, the exploration of the Toa River, and the continuation of the studies in the Seboruco Cave.
Núñez Jiménez discovered in the Sierra de los Órganos the Great Cavern of Santo Tomás, the largest in this archipelago; in that area he reported paleontological and speleological discoveries and several fossils; and also located the largest archeological monument in Cuba, in the hill of Guaney, province of Camagüey.
In 1949 he was elected individual member of the Cuban National Commission of UNESCO and in April 1950 he was designated director of the Museum of the Speleological Society of Cuba; in 1956 he rejoined the National Speleological Society of Washington, in the United States, and was also the first president of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba; rector and founder of the Speleological Federation of Latin America and the Caribbean and of several national and international scientific societies.
Considered the father of Cuban Speleology, during the last stage of the Cuban people’s struggle, his studies of the central region of the country contributed to prepare the theater of operations for the actions of the Ciro Redondo Column led by Commander Che Guevara and as a member of this invading force, in 1958, he participated in the liberation of Fomento, Cabaiguán, Placetas, Remedios, Caibarién and Santa Clara, and was appointed captain of the Rebel Army.
His work at the head of the Cuban Academy of Sciences led to the establishment of 33 research facilities, four museums, five Natural Reserves, two botanical gardens and an equal number of delegations, as well as planetariums and seismological stations.
Main author of the Carsological Map of Cuba, Antonio Núñez Jiménez participated in countless scientific expeditions such as the one to the North Pole and Antarctica; he participated in study trips to the Galapagos Islands, Easter Island, and other regions such as the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, China and several European countries, as well as explorations in the Andes Mountains from Peru to Venezuela.
This outstanding Cuban speleologist and researcher was part of the international expedition known as In Canoe from the Amazon to the Caribbean, created, organized and directed by him and where Latin American researchers participated and traveled through twenty countries, and as president of the Antonio Núñez Jiménez Foundation of Nature and Man, he elaborated his work in a collection entitled Cuba: La Naturaleza y el Hombre, in 50 volumes, an encyclopedia that began to be published in 1982.
