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“Those
who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strenght that
will endure as long as life lasts”
R.L.C.
A
Tribute to Dr.Carlos de la Torre
One
of the most memorable malacological characters that has marked more
my life, and of present and former generations of land snail enthusiasts,
is no doubt Dr. Carlos de la Torre y Huertas, better known only as Don
Carlos for his friends. Who has not touched the old covers of his diverse
publications?, writings showing a passionate interest and love towards
his "caracoles", his snails; it's a story of romance with
science.
Living
in a world famous land snail area as Cuba, we can assist to the beginings
of his interest in the field of malacology in the first pages of his
last published work: The Genus Polymita, where we can
read:
"
Jimeno gave me some duplicates of this collection (some Polymitas),
and the enthusiam that arised in me because of the beauty of this group,
took me to invest my time for their study, first steps in the efforts
of a whole life devoted to know the biology of the molluscs in general
terms"
I
do have a close relationship with Don Carlos, he has been with me in
many of the best snail sites of Cuba, giving me advices about where
to go in one page, and in another, describing me what was it like snailing
in this or that area in his times, what he got, what happened that day,
etc... I have never been alone this way; often I've also been travelling
on his steps, trying to solve what direction he took for finding this
or that rare specimen, other times gone alone, but thinking that Don
Carlos would have loved this site I found. And this way a friendship
was born.
In
these last journeys I also were lucky to meet a lot of his relatives,
friends or people that sampled for him, people that knew him personally,
and all of them agree, he was a supreme and passionate person, friend
of his friends, who showed a care and love for his work.
I
will try in this short essay to describe a little bit what is the Cuba
I have seen through the eyes of Don Carlos in my last journey.
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Malacology
in Cuba
It
is possible to say that land malacology was nearly born in Cuba, no place
in the world is so documented as this island is. Scholars as Gundlach
and Pfeiffer were the pioneers, in the middle of the 19th century , begining
the description of the diverse molluscan fauna that was found during their
journeys, These were followed in the time by local scientists as Felipe
Poey or foreigners as Morelet; later appeared an important contribution
to this malacological science, the work of Arango who was the first to
publish a Cuban mollusca checklist.
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in the beginings of the 20th century malacology reaches its peak, Pilsbry,
Clench and Bartsch continue the surveys on the molluscan fauna, and Carlos
de la Torre begins also his career. What is going to mark the future of
malacology on the island will be the publication of some Smithsonian Institution
bulletins devoted to the Cuban species: " The Cuban Operculate
Land Shells of the Subfamily Chondropominae", and " The
Cuban Operculate Land Mollusks of the family Annulariidae exclusive of
the subfamily Chondropominae" authored by Carlos de la Torre
and Paul Bartsch, these easy to obtain works will be the bases of the
popular land malacology as public awareness for this science increased,
and snailing became a popular hobby, leading to a deep knowledge of the
most important molluscs to be found at the Cuban famous sites; though
it is true that most times these interests were devoted to obtain the
nice looking, gay coloured species just for the joy of collecting more
than for investing on a scientific approach to the different families
to be found, but many of these collectors also advanced in their studies
and contributed to the better understanding of the diverse factors that
made Cuba evolve into one of the richest molluscan sites of the world.
So,
malacological societies were founded and the interest on shells and snails
arised, at the societies everyone had the chances to cooperate in the
research, it was the time of glory of Cuban malacology.
Many
important private collections were gathered in these years, but nothing
compared to Don Carlos' collection, he had contacts all around the island
sampling for him and widely travelled to new localities in search for
new species as well as welcomed all foreign malacologists during their
visits to the island, journals are full of articles describing trips in
the company of Don Carlos, seems he really enjoyed them a lot, and for
sure was one of the best hosts to be found.
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