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azon basin high near its source and then paddled
down the river and up through the Antilles to end
in Cuba. It was similar to the trip organized and
run by Thor Heyerdahl in his famed boat “Kon Ti-
ki.” The trip is chronicled throughout the room in
maps and collections.
When we entered a room covered from floor to
ceiling with books containing Antonio’s notes and
photographs from his many expeditions, we
learned how Antonio evolved from scientist and
explorer to revolutionary. In his extensive work in
the 1940s and 1950s, he exposed Cuba’s agricul-
ture and agrarian society as a class system. The
Cuban dictator at the time, Fulgencio Batista, felt
Antonio, or more importantly his thinking and writ-
ing, threatened the regime. Antonio was arrested,
ultimately fully converted and committed to the
revolution (proof of this conversion are contained
in the display cases), and later served as a captain
under Che Guevara in central Cuba. Once the
triumph of the Revolution was secured Antonio
continued to serve his country. He served as di-
rector of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform,
putting into practice his thoughts developed in his
previous work. He also served as president of the
Cuban National Bank, president of the Academy of
Sciences, and as ambassador to Peru.
Antonio Nunez Jimenez donated his home to the
Foundation to continue his work in the sciences,
exploration, and conservation/environmental pro-
tection. Now a non
-
governmental organization
charged with researching and protecting Cuba’s
land and water and its natural habitats, the FANJ
conducts research on weather, climate change,
and the land and water of Cuba. It plays a key
role in stopping poaching and in enforcing the en-
vironmental laws of Cuba, and is working to en-
courage the development of wind and solar power
sources and technology to create a sustainable
energy structure
In one example of its activities, FANJ research
helped demonstrate that a dam planned for a river
in eastern Cuba to “solve” water issues in the re-
gion and throughout the country would in fact
cause large
-
scale environmental damage. FANJ
was instrumental in stopping the project and pro-
tecting vital irreplaceable land.