Fèlix Cardona i Puig (

Malgrat de Mar Malgrat de Mar () is a municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Comarques of Catalonia, ''comarca'' of the Maresme, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is located on the Barcelona Coast between Santa Susanna, Barcelona, Santa Su ...

, Maresme, February 3, 1903 –

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (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 northern p ...

, December 5, 1982) was a Spanish

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

of the Venezuelan

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

.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, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

due to economic problems. Cardona made several expeditions, staying a long time with the natives. Together with Joan Maria Mundó i Freixas, 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 state, Venezuela.Huber, O. (1995). Geographical and physical features. In: P.E. Berry, B.K. Holst & K. Yatskievych (eds.) '' Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana. Volume 1. Introduction.'' Mis ...

, discovering the waterfall now known as

Angel Falls Angel Falls (; Pemon: ''Kerepakupai Merú'' or ''Parakupá Vená'') is a waterfall in Venezuela. It is the world's tallest uninterrupted waterfall, with a height of , and a plunge of . The waterfall drops over the edge of the Auyán-tepui m ...

(in honour of Jimmie Angel, 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: ''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 German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, 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) did not come 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 doubly made several discoveries, among them the above-mentioned

not reckoned like that by Revista de Fomento, the authority having jurisdiction. 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 1903 births 1982 deaths 20th-century Spanish people Spanish explorers of South America

Biography

See also

References

Bibliography

External links