Fernando Ortiz is one of the most significant scientific figures in Latin America and the most important ethnologist and anthropologist in Cuba. En great Cuban sage was born in Cuba on July 16th 1881 and died on April 10th 1969 in Havana. He was a member of the Economic Society of Friends of the Country since 1907 and directed it from 1923 to 1932, he was also a member of the Academy of History since it was founded until 1933. Ortiz was a member of the House of Representatives from 1917 to 1927 and developed the Cuban Penal Code containing a program of legislative and administrative reforms that were very advanced at that time. From 1910 on, he represented Cuba as an official delegate in many an international scientific and academic congress. Ortiz dedicated his long, fruitful life not only to ethnology but also to sociology, linguistics, musicology, jurisprudence and criticism, and published over one hundred works such as Apuntes para un estudio criminal: Los negros brujos (Notes for a Criminal Study: The Black Sorcerers) (1906); Los mambises italianos (The Italian Rebels) (1909); Entre cubanos (Among Cubans) (1914); Los negros esclavos (The Black Slaves) (1916); Los cabildos afrocubanos (The Afro-Cuban Town Councils) (1921); Historia de la arqueología indocubana (History of Indo-Cuban Archeology) (1922); Glosario de afronegrismos (Glossary of Afro-Negroid Phrases) (1924); Alejandro de Humboldt y Cuba (Alexander von Humboldt and Cuba) (1930); Contrapunteo cubano del tabaco y el azúcar (Cuban Improvised Verse Duel Between Tobacco and Sugarcane) (1940); Martí y las razas (Martí and the Races) (1942); Las cuatro culturas indias de Cuba (The Four Indian Cultures in Cuba) (1943); El engaño de las razas (The Deceit of Races) (1946); El huracán, su mitología y sus símbolos (The Hurricane, its Mythology and its Symbols) (1947); Los bailes y el teatro de los negros en el folklore de Cuba (Black Dances and Theater in the Cuban Folklore) (1951); Los instrumentos de la música afrocubana, cinco volúmenes (The Instruments of the Afro-Cuban Music, five Volumes) (1952); and Historia de una pelea cubana contra los demonios (History of a Cuban Fight Against Demons) (1959). Some posthumous publications of Fernando Ortiz’s unpublished works are Hampa afrocubana … Los negros curros (Afro-Cuban Underworld… The Black Bullies) (1986); La santería y la brujería de los blancos (Santeria and witchcraft of Whites) (2000) and Visiones sobre Lam (Views on Lam) (2002). “So extensive and deep was Don Fernando’s work”, wrote Juan Marinello, “that he can carry, without bending, the title of Third Discoverer of Cuba.”