Oscar Paulino Arredondo de la Mata

Born in Havana is the eminent Cuban paleontologist Oscar Arredondo y de la Mata, scholar of Cuban fossil vertebrates from the Plioquaternary, and member of the Speleological Society of Cuba since 1945.

He devoted himself to the study of Cuban nature mainly from Pinar del Río and Havana.

A man who was an example of simplicity, humility, tenacity, and knowledge always willing to share.

There was no scientific family environment; economic possibilities were always scarce and academic training was completely absent. Without a doubt, this motivates us more, it concerns us and even compels us to delve deeper into his personality.

He was born in the picturesque Barrio del Pilar, as he always called it, in the City of Havana, Cuba. His birth is recorded on July 18, although his father told him he had been born on June 18.

Until 1955 he lived in that neighborhood, although in different streets and houses, and he died on July 20, 2001 in the Reparto Capri where he lived for 40 years.

Son of humble parents. He entered Public School No. 33 at the age of 9 in the school year of 1927. He remained in this school until 1932, which indicates that he only reached the 5th grade of schooling, at which point he had to leave school and begin working to increase the family's economic income, like the rest of his six siblings, two girls and four boys.

From a very young age he felt a profound love for natural sciences, especially for ornithology, beginning to venture into this science in a self-taught manner. The life and habits of animals were his greatest passion from the very beginning.

In 1936, already 18 years old, he began singing tangos, including those of his own inspiration, on various radio stations of the time until 1941. This passion for tango and its interpretation he never abandoned for the rest of his life, although he never made a living from it again. Furthermore, as an actor, he participated in numerous theatrical revues of the time in various theaters in the capital. The family environment allowed this, as he came from an eminently artistic family.

In 1942, he began working in a clothing store and later, for four years, worked in a barbershop. Furthermore, he worked as a photographic representative, fruit seller and theatrical representative for a company of actors where other of his siblings worked, among other multiple occupations of the time to earn some money.

Throughout this period he devoted himself to reading extensively and observing animals, and he also possessed extraordinary talents for drawing, an aspect of which he left in numerous color postcards of our birds.

In the year 1945 he enters the Speleological Society of Cuba and, a year later, begins to discover the fascinating world of the study of fossils, that is, paleontology.

From this moment on his life changes in the cultural order; he begins to dedicate his life to the study of fossil remains that he found, together with his colleagues from the Speleological Society of Cuba, in the different caverns they visited during the numerous expeditions carried out to various places in the country.

As a member of a scientific society, which channeled his interests and investigative motivations, a deeper preparation was necessary, but still in a self-taught manner. During this period he had to assume various jobs as a way to make a living and eat. An important part of his monetary income he used to pay for expedition trips, according to the work schedule of the then nascent Speleological Society of Cuba.

In the year 1948, he began working permanently as a mailman at the Ministry of Communications, work which he performed with pride and dedication for 36 years, until 1984, when he retired from work.

From this moment on he dedicated the rest of his days to deepening his study of the bone structures of extinct Cuban vertebrates, for which he spared no sacrifice.

His first 30 years of life served him to establish himself as a man of integrity, he felt not the slightest shame in performing various jobs, as long as they were honest in order to earn a living and obtain the money he used for his expedition trips.

His first publication took place in the year 1939 and, even in the year 2006, he had works pending publication. Beginning in 1946, with his second published article, his fruitful scientific life in the field of natural sciences begins.

In these biographical notes it is important to highlight the dissemination work that O. Arredondo carried out on general topics of fauna. For this, he used the skill and ability of his ideas and words to reflect in various magazines of the time, such as Bohemia, Carteles, El Cartero Cubano, Lux and Ecos, among others, the richness of our fauna and the need for its protection; he was able to bring purely scientific topics to a dissemination scientific language accessible to young people and professionals, something unusual in purely scientific people.

His vast paleontological work focuses on the study of birds and mammals of the Quaternary of Cuba. He had the privilege of discovering and describing a diverse fauna of giant birds that populated practically all national territory, and of realizing the very significant ecological role that these played in lands where there were no carnivorous mammals. The Cuban condor, the eagle of prehistory of Cuba, owls and owls of enormous sizes, the largest hawk in America and a teratorn were described by Arredondo.

Various species of mammals, among which are canines, sloths, rodents and primates were described and substantiated by Arredondo, as species of our prehistoric past. The contribution to knowledge of these species has been of great value in the field of comparative osteology, paleobiogeography of Cuba and the Antilles, and even in archaeozoology and anthropology.

To remember Oscar Arredondo only as a paleontologist would be like mutilating a life that is just beginning. Oscar, as many called him, or Arredondo as others also called him, came to be (without intending to) a pedagogue, for his teachings bore fruit in several young people who today follow in his footsteps, students some and expedition companions others, knew how to take advantage of his experiences and above all value a simple man, humble and with extreme sensitivity.

Various articles and lectures, from his beginnings, are aimed at offering working methodologies in the field of natural sciences, specifically in paleontology. Today the need for environmental protection and conservation of biodiversity is being written and discussed.

It is commendable to recognize in Arredondo a promoter of the protection of fauna. Various and varied were the works he published in popular science magazines about the need for care and protection of biodiversity, referring to birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals and various groups of invertebrates, emphasizing in all of them the beauty of Mother Nature and the urgent need to protect even the most insignificant inhabitants of the earth.

In this sense, from his unpublished book "My Thoughts" he wrote in 1961: "The best work that man could do on earth is not to destroy nature."

Despite never having received any degree corresponding to secondary studies, higher education or specialized studies in biological sciences, his investigative scientific trajectory is broad and fruitful. This statement is supported by the following data.

He published 134 specialized scientific works, most of which have been made known in Cuba, many others in the United States of America and in Venezuela. A total of 38 morphospecies of Quaternary vertebrates of Cuba bear his name as sole author or in company with prestigious Cuban or foreign scientists (Table 1), as well as 2 subfamilies, 10 genera and 4 subgenera, both of birds and mammals new to science, which he has made known to the scientific world.

The species dedicated to Oscar Arredondo include Pulsatrix arredondoi Brodkorb (1968), Capromys arredondoi Varona (1984), Cerion (Strophiops) arredondoi Jaime (1984) and Solenodon arredondoi Morgan & Ottenwalder, (1993). Finally, he belonged to several national and international organizations as a corresponding and active member, some of these organizations no longer exist today.

When he died he belonged to more than 10 national and international organizations, of recognized prestige, as an active member and, in some of them, as a Member of Honor. Upon his death, under the authorship of O. Arredondo, there were works to be published, including his greatest written work "The Fossil Vertebrates of the Quaternary of Cuba," a book with more than 800 pages and 1,300 engravings.