Fèlix Cardona i Puig (

Malgrat de Mar Malgrat de Mar is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of the Maresme, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is situated on the Costa Brava between Santa Susanna and Blanes. A local road runs from the town to the main N-II road, while t ...

Maresme Maresme () is a ''comarca'' (county) located along the Catalan Mediterranean coast in Spain, between the ''comarques'' of Barcelonès (at the Southwest) and Selva (at the Northeast), and also bordering with Vallès Oriental (at the west). Its c ...

, February 3, 1903 –

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

, December 5, 1982) was a Spanish

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

of the Venezuelan

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

.Fèlix Cardona i Puig

Biography

The son of Fèlix Cardona i Paradeda and Josefa Puig i Comas, Cardona was educated at the boarding school of Collell and studied later in the Nautical School of Barcelona. He finished his studies in 1922 and embarked on a ship. After a practice trip, he stayed in Venezuela due to his interest in exploration. Later, he returned to

and founded a textile factory but had to escape to

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

due to economic problems. Cardona made several expeditions, staying a long time with the natives. Together with

Joan Maria Mundó i Freixas Juan María Mundó Freixas (Barcelona, 1877 – Ciudad Bolívar, 1932) was a Spanish explorer and diamond trader. In 1927 he organised, together with his son and the also Spanish explorer Fèlix Cardona i Puig, an expedition to the southwest of ...

, he organised an expedition to the southwest of

starting in San Pedro de las Bocas, along the rivers Caroni and Caruao until they arrived to the

Auyán-tepui Auyán Tepui (), also spelled Ayan, is a tepui in Bolívar, Venezuela, Bolívar state, Venezuela.Huber, O. (1995). Geographical and physical features. In: P.E. Berry, B.K. Holst & K. Yatskievych (eds.) ''Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana, Flora of t ...

, discovering the waterfall now known as

Angel Falls Angel Falls ( es, Salto Ángel; Pemon language: ''Kerepakupai Merú'' meaning "waterfall of the deepest place", or ''Parakupá Vená'', meaning "the fall from the highest point") is a waterfall in Venezuela. It is the List of waterfalls by hei ...

(in honour of

Jimmie Angel James "Jimmie" Crawford Angel (August 1, 1899December 8, 1956) was an American aviator after whom Angel Falls in Venezuela, the tallest waterfall in the world, is named. Early life James Crawford Angel was born August 1, 1899, near Cedar Valle ...

, but in the native tongue were designated as Churun Merú). During the 1930s and 1940s, Cardona collected field notes of various indigenous languages in Venezuela, including Arutani, Sapé, and Saliban languages. Much of the data remains unpublished in his notebooks, which are currently held in the

Municipal Archives (

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

: ''Arxiu Municipal de Malgrat de Mar'').Bardagil, Bernat.
Lost Amazonian languages on the Mediterranean
'. May 6, 2018. On January 25, 1932, Cardona married Carlot Votti ("Loti"), of

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

, Germany. In 1937, Cardona accompanied Jimmie Angel flying over the Churún Merú. Angel later on tried to land on the top, crashing the plane, but he survived, and Cardona (who stayed in the base) came to his rescue. In 1946, he was designated a Botanic Explorer by the "Dirección de fronteras del Ministerio de Relaciones Interiores de Venezuela" (Direction of Borders of the Ministry of Inner Relations of Venezuela). Many plant species and even some animals have been named after him, for they were discovered by him. He contributed to the preparation of maps of

and made several discoveries, among them the above-mentioned

. He died in

in 1982.

References

Bibliography

* FUNDACIÓN POLAR: Diccionario Histórico de Venezuela. Artículo sobre la biografía de Fèlix Cardona. Caracas: Fundación Polar, 1992. * GRASES, Pere.
Fèlix Cardona y Puig.Mito y realidad en el corazón de América del Sur
(Ensayo de interpretación personal)". Caracas: Tierra Firme, Patronato de Cultura del Centro Catalán de Caracas. Ayuntamiento de Malgrat, Generalitat de Catalunya, Instituto Catalán de Cooperación Iberoamericana, Instituto Municipal de Historia del Ayuntamiento de Barcelona. Imprimido a ROMARGRAF, S. a., L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 1983. * HUBER, Otto. Chimantá, Escudo de Guayana, Venezuela. Caracas: Edit:Ex Libris, 1992. Esta obra incluye algunas fotos de Fèlix Cardona, quién acompañó y guió al propio Huber en la expedición altepuy guaianès. * RÖHL, Eduardo. Historia de las ciencias geográficas de Venezuela (1498–1948). Caracas: edición de Héctor Pérez Marchelli, Talleres Gráficos Cromotip, 1990, 514 pp. El artículo biográfico sobre Fèlix Cardona fue redactado por el editor Héctor Pérez Marchelli para la edición póstuma del libro de Röhl. * Vázquez-Figueroa, Alberto. ''Ícaro''. (1998).

External links

felix-cardona Descubridor del Salto angel

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cardona i Puig, Felix Explorers of South America 1903 births 1982 deaths

Biography

See also

References

Bibliography

External links