Antonio Calvache Dorado

Cuban geologist and mining engineer who conducted numerous investigations in this specialty, discovering new types of minerals.

He was born in La Mejorana, a town near Dos Caminos (San Luis), the former province of Oriente (belonging to the current Santiago de Cuba province).

In 1912 he graduated with a degree in high school studies and surveying from the Provincial Institute of Santiago de Cuba. A year later, he obtained a scholarship to study mining engineering in Lima, Peru. Once graduated, he returned to Cuba in 1918, and shortly thereafter settled in the province of Oriente.

In Oriente he worked as a consultant for Mining and Minerals, and later as a mine inspector for the Secretary of Agriculture.

In 1936 he moved to work in La Habana, where he was assigned by the aforementioned secretariat to oversee the demarcations of mining concessions in Oriente, Camagüey, and Isla de Pinos. Later, in 1945, he was appointed director of Forests and Mines of the same entity. That same year, he obtained a doctorate in Natural Sciences from the University of La Habana, where he taught classes on Mining Economics and Economic Geology.

He was director of the National Geographic Institute in 1948, and that same year attended an International Cartography Convention in Buenos Aires. In 1949 he participated in the International Engineering Congress, held in México. During these years he traveled throughout South America, and participated in the creation of a geological sketch of La Habana.

After the triumph of the Revolution he joined the Institute of Mineral Resources, and in 1962 he founded and organized the school of Mining Engineering and Geological Engineering at the University of Oriente. He was geological advisor to the Institute of Geography and scientific advisor to the Institute of Geology. He published multiple works on Mining and Geology, among which stood out those referring to the historical approach to the evolution of these disciplines.

He died in La Habana on August 9, 1984.

Main Works
History and Development of Mining in Cuba (1945).
Historical Sketch of Knowledge of the Geology of Cuba (1965).
The Geology of Cuba, One Hundred Years of Struggle, One Hundred Years of Science (1968).
Report on the Geological and Mining Investigations Carried Out in Cuba Between the First Third of the 19th Century and What Has Occurred in the 20th Century (1973).

Active Bibliography
Calvache Dorado, Antonio and Roque Allende. "Geological Report on the Aqueduct Project for the City of Santiago de Cuba". In: Mining Bulletin. No. 9. Secretary of Agriculture, La Habana, 1926, pp. 7-30
Report on a Granitic Formation Near Santiago de Cuba. Printed by Engineering Office, Santiago de Cuba, 1926
Elements of Natural Sciences. Published by Arroyo Hermanos, Santiago de Cuba, 1929
Economic Mining Resources of Cuba, Their Location and Possibilities for the Postwar Period. Ministry of Agriculture, La Habana, 1943
History and Development of Mining in Cuba. Neptuno Publishing House, La Habana, 1944
Introduction to Mineralogy. University of Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, 1965
Historical Sketch of Knowledge of the Geology of Cuba. Academy of Sciences, La Habana, 1965
Geology in Cuba, from 1868 to 1968. Series One Hundred Years of Struggle, One Hundred Years of Science. No. 1. Academy of Sciences, La Habana, 1968
Report on the Geological and Mining Investigations Carried Out in Cuba Between the First Third of the 19th Century and What Has Occurred in the 20th Century. Institute of Geology of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba, La Habana, 1973
History of the Appropriation by the United States of the Mineral Wealth of Our Country, Beginning in the 19th Century. Institute of Geology of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba, La Habana, 1974.

Passive Bibliography
Álvarez Conde, José. History of Geology, Mineralogy and Paleontology in Cuba. Lex Publishing House, Publications of the National Board of Archaeology and Ethnology, La Habana, 1957, pp. 218-219
Rangel Rivero, Armando and Armando García González "Antonio Calvache". In: Cuban Geology Society Bulletin. Vol. 71. No. 1. La Habana, 1990, pp. 21-22.

Source: EcuRed