Juan Gallardo Cordero

Considered by Antonio Núñez Jiménez as the wise peasant of Viñales, a man who has made his part of history in Cuban speleology. He has had the privilege, like few others, of knowing and working with outstanding personalities from Cuban history, science, and culture.

Juan Gallardo Cordero was born in Viñales, son of Domingo Cáceres Díaz (native of Las Palmas de Gran Canarias who lived in Cuba from 1900 to 1927, when he returned to Spain where he died shortly after) and Patrona Gallardo Cordero (native of the Río Blanco area in the municipality of La Palma).

He had 3 sisters: Rosario, Amparo, and Alejandrina. In Viñales he lived on San Mateo Street (now known as Camilo Cienfuegos) until 1958, except for the years between 1951 and 1955 when he lived in the Los Jazmines area, moving to a tenement building that was located where the Municipal Library now stands, living there until 1978 when he moved to the road to the cemetery, remaining at this address until 1996 when he decided to return to Camilo Cienfuegos Street.

His first wife was named Amparo Bravo, who was from San Andrés and with whom he had a son who died shortly after. He married a second time to Maria Valdez Robaina (who was from La Majagua in Viñales) and with her had 4 children named: Juan, Eustiquio, Rolando, and Caridad.

He studied at the primary school located on Salvador Cisneros Street, where he completed 1st and 2nd grade, while he did 3rd and 4th grade at the small school located where the Municipal Education office now stands.

His first job was helping his mother collect acorns (those seeds used for pig feed for which they paid 25 centavos per arroba), then he worked as a truck helper unloading merchandise for the Wilson and La Estrella factories. He also worked as a wood stevedore in the San Vicente sawmills, and also dedicated himself to collecting medicinal plants to sell them to drugstores in Havana.

His best friend during childhood was the Chinese Manila (father of the Miranda sisters Carmen and Caridad), while during his youth he had the privilege of knowing and working first with scientist Carlos de la Torre, then with Antonio Núñez Jiménez, Leovigildo González, Eduardo Serrano, Alicia Alonso, Fernando Alonso, Alfonso Coro, Consuelo Hernández, and brothers Manuel and Víctor García.

He assisted in studies and research for Don Carlos de la Torre, a scientist from Matanzas who demonstrated to the world through the discovery of ammonites that the westernmost region of Cuba belonged to the Jurassic period and dedicated himself to collecting fossils and various animals in the Cordillera de los Órganos. And to Núñez Jiménez himself, an outstanding naturalist, geographer, and Cuban speleologist, considered by many as the true promoter of the natural values of the Viñales area, and to Leovigildo González (the painter of the Mural of Prehistory).

He served as guide, tracker, or assistant to the most notable and eminent scientists from Cuba and abroad who have conducted studies in the Viñales area, learning many things from them and teaching them in turn his abilities to find the most interesting fossils, discover new species of mollusks, and explain in Creole language how the Microsica calocoma reproduces or how Sacricias can be raised.

Juan Gallardo is a man who has made his part of history in Cuban speleology and together with Núñez Jiménez was a founder of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, having major participation in the creation of the Institute of Geography and Cartography, as well as in the development of the Atlas of Cuba.

In Gallardo's own opinion, the most significant thing in his life was the work he performed on the Mural of Prehistory, a feeling he expressed during an interview conducted by his friend Núñez Jiménez and published in the newspaper Periódico Guerrillero on April 29, 1990.

In his trajectory, this peasant from Viñales has been closely linked to the main events that have occurred in the locality, including the famous legends that have emerged such as that of Antoñica Izquierdo with the Water Spirits, that of Benito Hernández Cabrera with his verses, that of Ángel García with his yarey hat, and that of Leandro Rodríguez Malagón himself with the First peasant militias of Cuba, as well as that related to the Miranda sisters Carmen and Caridad in their garden.

Added to this are the important discoveries made in the Viñales area regarding fossil remains and rock drawings in which Gallardo has had active participation, also demonstrating excellent knowledge on the most diverse natural topics and particularly those referring to terrestrial mollusks, becoming even a mandatory source of consultation for scholars in the field.

This peasant is attributed with the discovery of rock paintings in the Cueva del Cura located in the Hoyo de Jaruco (a small valley located in the [[Sierra de la Guasasa) where more than 30 motifs or figures were found representing scenes of bird hunters, Indians in canoes, and other drawings in red and black colors.