Carlos de la Torre Huerta

===BODY===
Cuban malacologist and zoologist. Eminent researcher and university professor. His extensive work includes studies in geology, paleontology, archaeology, and history.

He was born in Matanzas on May 15, 1858, and died in Havana on February 19, 1950. He completed his primary education at the La Empresa school in Matanzas, until it was closed by Spanish authorities, and was later replaced by the Los Normales school, founded by his father, Bernabé de la Torre.

At the age of 10 he enrolled in the Institute of Secondary Education in Matanzas, but it was also closed due to the outbreak of the Ten Years' War.
He continued his studies at the Institute of Secondary Education in Havana, where in 1874 he obtained his bachelor's degree in Arts. That same year he enrolled in the preparatory course for medicine at the Royal and Literary University of Havana, which he completed with outstanding grades.

He came into contact with Felipe Poey Aloy and made his first forays into what would become his definitive profession: malacology.

During 1876 he was forced to return to Matanzas due to having contracted malaria in the swamps of Atarés.

In 1880 he obtained the position of assistant instructor of physics and chemistry and curator of the Museum of Natural History at the Institute of Secondary Education in Havana and enrolled at the University of Havana. In 1881 he achieved the degree of licentiate in Sciences and an extraordinary prize with honors to pursue a doctorate at the Central University of Madrid, where he received his doctorate in Natural Sciences in 1883. That year he obtained the position of professor of Natural History, Physiology, and Hygiene at the Institute of Secondary Education in Puerto Rico; in 1885 he took up work as professor of Comparative Anatomy at the University of Havana.

In 1890, the Economic Society of Friends of the Country (SEAP) commissioned him to conduct an expedition to Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, and the eastern region of Cuba. As a result, in 1891 he delivered a valuable lecture at the Royal Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences of Havana on "Deformed Skulls and Archaeological Objects Discovered in the Caves of Maisí". In this latter area he also studied the disease affecting coconut trees that was ravaging the territory, and discovered its causes.

Similarly, he collaborated with Fermín Valdés Domínguez and other patriots who were working on the preparations for the future independence uprising.
During 1892 he traveled through the central part of the Island. His observations allowed him to make important determinations regarding the geological age of Cuba.

From the paleontological point of view he obtained valuable findings: the fossil remains of Megalocnus rodens, discovered in the baths of Ciego Montero, in the current province of Cienfuegos, which were valid for demonstrating the continental nature of the Island in the Pleistocene, and those of Ammonites in the baths of La Bija in Cruces, Cienfuegos, which evidenced the existence of the Jurassic period in Cuba.

He delivered the opening address of the 1895-1896 university year with his presentation "First News About American Fauna Provided by Admiral Columbus in the Diary of His First Voyage".

Shortly after, following the outbreak of the War of Independence, he traveled to England, where he attended the Jubilee of Queen Victoria and exchanged with the distinguished scientists Bendall, Pomsomby, and Fulton.

Furthermore, in France he also came into contact with the scientists Hamy, Verneau, Milmez-Edward, and Perrier. In 1897, a year before the War of Independence concluded, he carried out a special mission while traveling to the United States: to deliver a message from Marta Abreu to Tomás Estrada Palma.

Shortly thereafter he traveled to Mexico, where he maintained relations with the scientists Dujes, Herrera, and Aguilera, and served as professor at the French lyceum in Chihuahua. He returned to Cuba during the First Military Occupation of the United States in Cuba and was elected councilman, vice mayor, and mayor of Havana, in which role he presided over the acts for the proclamation of the republic on May 20, 1902.

He participated alongside General Máximo Gómez in the founding of the Cuban National Party and served as representative to the Chamber and president of that body in 1904.

He was professor of geology, paleontology, and anthropology at the University of Havana (1900), dean of the Faculty of Letters and Sciences (1920), and rector of the institution (1921).

He achieved the degrees of doctor in Pharmacy (1921) and doctor in Medicine (1922). He published numerous textbooks and is considered among the founders of Cuban pedagogical science.

His opposition to the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado forced him into a new exile in the United States, where he served as president of the Revolutionary Board. After the fall of the tyranny he returned to Cuba, held the position of president of the Council of State (1934), but shortly thereafter resigned and returned to the university chair. He was a technical member of the Finlay Institute and director of the Department of Biology (1935).

During 1936 in Washington, he worked on his work "Familia Annularidae", collaborated with the scientist Paul Bartsch, and was curator of mollusks at the National Museum of the United States.

In 1948 he held meetings with King Leopold of Belgium, who visited Cuba and was interested in malacology.

Although already of advanced age, he continued his explorations; worked on his studies of Cuban Polidontes and on the Helix, published monographs on mollusks, and paid special attention to organizing his archives and arranging his collections of polymitas, one of which he dedicated to the Washington Museum.

He was a member of prestigious national scientific institutions: the Anthropological Society of the Island of Cuba, the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country, the Royal Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences of Havana, the Cuban Society of Natural History Felipe Poey, and the Geographic Society of Cuba. Likewise, he participated in the work of relevant foreign scientific societies: the Zoological Society of France, the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia, the Spanish Society of Natural History, the American Museum of Natural History of New York, United States, the Malacological Society of London, the Leopoldina Academy of Naturalists of Halle, Germany, the Chilean Academy of Natural Sciences, the Society of Natural History of Mexico, and the American Malacological Union.

He received such distinctions as Diplome D´Honeur from the Institut du Midi, France (1901), Doctor of Sciences Honoris Causa from Harvard University (1912), Grand Cross of the National Order Carlos Manuel de Céspedes of the Republic of Cuba (1935), Chevalier de L´Orden Nacionale de la Legión d´Honeur of the Republic of France (1936), Professor Emeritus of the University of Havana (1938); Doctor Honoris Causa from Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany (1938); Honorary Member of the Washington Academy of Sciences (1939).

Source: EnCaribe.org