USA Expert Highlights Cuba’s Contributions to World Speleology

Camagüey, Cuba, Apr 17 (Prensa Latina) PhD María Alejandra Perez, assistant professor of geography at the University of West Virginia, United States, praised here the leadership and contributions of Cuba to speleological knowledge in the world. The also expert in cultural anthropology participates in this city, about 570 kilometers east of Havana, in the Congress of the Speleological Society of Cuba (from April 14 to 17).

She highlighted the contributions of the Cuban scientist, geographer, archaeologist and speleologist Antonio Núñez Jiménez (1923-1998) and said that she has found an active generation that continues his legacy and improves it in specialties as hydrogeology and morphology, among others.

Cuba has the historical merit of having founded the first Speleological Society of America in 1940, long before a federation in the United States, she added and expressed her preference for archeology as a social activity in its historical context.

She commended the work of the group Origen, in Artemisa, in the west of the archipelago, whose members began their caving training in the context of pedagogy to promote environmental education through science whose object is the exploration and study of the underground caves.

The academician, who was passionate about caving and the living, active and dynamic environment of the exploration of nature and especially the cave system and culture of science, said that Origen instilled in young people love and the impetus for the universe around them.

She considered that the specialty includes elements of adventure, knowledge and fellowship.

I have always studied how young people are motivated by their own underground environment and organize to better understand space and cave heritage of a nation, she said.