Fernando Ortiz Fernández

Fernando Ortiz Fernández (16 July 1881 – 10 April 1969) was a Cuban essayist, anthropologist, ethnomusicologist and scholar of Afro-Cuban culture.

Ortiz was a prolific polymath dedicated to exploring, recording, and understanding all aspects of indigenous Cuban culture.Ortiz has been called the "third discoverer of Cuba", after Christopher Columbus and Alexander von Humboldt.

[2][3] One of Ortiz's most influential contributions is his coining of the term "transculturation," which describes the complex process of cultural convergence and exchange.

[11] Ortiz was professor of African American anthropologist Irene Diggs when she was doing her PhD in anthropology at University of Havana.

[13] He also helped establish important journals such as Revista Bimestre Cubana, Archivos del Folklore Cubano, and Estudios Afrocubanos.

[16] Fernando Ortiz most known and read book was Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar originally published in 1940 in Spanish and translated to English in 1995.

[17] In his book he draws comparisons between sugar and tabaco the most relevant products form Cuba that have entered the daily life of cubans.

Its main objectives are the study and dissemination of the life and work of Fernando Ortiz, as well as the development of academic research on Cuban cultural identity.

[21] It has also published images, documents and reprints of Ortiz's work and devoted itself to studies of ethnology, sociology and Cuba's popular traditions.

The Foundation has fostered scholarly discussions around many cultural issues, including the survival of elements of racism and racial prejudice, and development of measures to deal with such problems.