Silvano Herminio Pedroso Montalvo

Silvano Herminio Pedroso Montalvo was born on April 25, 1953, in Cárdenas, Matanzas province, Cuba. He was a Cuban Catholic priest and bishop, recognized as the first Afro-Cuban bishop in more than five centuries of the Catholic Church's history in Cuba.

He earned a degree in Geography from the University of Havana and worked as a geographer at the Physical Planning Institute in Las Tunas from 1979 to 1982. In 1987, he decided to follow his religious vocation and entered the Major Theological Seminary of San Carlos and San Ambrosio in Havana.

He was ordained a deacon on January 9, 1995, and a priest on June 12, 1995, at the Cathedral of Havana, by Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino. Throughout his priestly ministry he served as parish priest in several churches of the Archdiocese of Havana, including parishes in Bejucal, Quivicán, Güines, Melena del Sur, and Nuestra Señora del Pilar in Havana.

On March 29, 2018, Pope Francis appointed him Bishop of the Diocese of Guantánamo-Baracoa. He received his episcopal ordination on May 27, 2018, at the Cathedral of San Cristóbal in Havana, and took possession of his diocese on June 9, 2018. He chose as his episcopal motto "Love one another as I have loved you" (Jn 13:34).

Mons. Pedroso died in Havana in the early hours of June 13, 2026, at the age of 73, from cancer. The Cuban Catholic Bishops' Conference described him as a pastor who "lived his condition as shepherd of God's people without making noise, but with silent dedication and sacrifice."