Cordero was born in Barrio Playa in Ponce, Puerto Rico, to Don Bernardino Cordero-Bernard and Doña María de los Santos Santiago.

"Churumba" was a nickname given in reference to Cordero's height; it is a Puerto Rican Spanish name given to small spinning tops.

A member of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), Cordero went on to work in the Departments of Finance and Workers' Rights (Spanish: Departamento del Derecho al Trabajo).

In 1988, Cordero received the endorsement of then governor Rafael Hernández Colón for the office of Mayor of the city of Ponce and won the elections for the PPD by 1,617 votes against his opponent Helcías Bermúdez of the New Progressive Party that same year.

[6] The park, which opened in 1994 and was named to honor the founder of the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee, covers some 80 acres (320,000 m2) and is located at the confluence of the Bucaná and Portugues rivers.

Cordero Santiago also built the Tricentennial Park Plaza in 1992,[7] the La Guancha Boardwalk,[8] and is credited with re-establishing the "Ponce en Marcha" project in 1992.

[10] In 1990, the administration of Cordero Santiago restored the old Parque de Bombas and turned it into a museum that preserves the history of Ponce's firefighters.

)A strong believer in the removal of the U.S. Navy from the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, Cordero was arrested in 2001 and imprisoned for 30 days after practicing civil disobedience during the Navy-Vieques protests by illegally trespassing the restricted grounds of the United States Navy on Vieques.

Churumba died on 17 January 2004 at 9:00 AM AST in the Medical Center of Río Piedras at the age of 61 after slipping into a coma and suffering a brain hemorrhage.

His remains were subsequently transferred to the Panteon Nacional Roman Baldorioty de Castro near downtown Ponce, where they are currently located in a prominent mausoleum.

"This [phrase] is in reference to the massive traffic jams experienced in the San Juan metropolitan area where highways resemble parking lots certain times of the day.