Between 1904 and 1914, he made more than 230 excursions through the province. Many of them with the students of the General and Technical Institute of Alicante, today IES Jorge Juan. Daniel Jiménez de Cisneros (1863-1941)Although he was born in Caravaca de la Cruz, he came to this center in 1903 as professor of Natural History and established an innovative pedagogical system, the so-called scientific hiking. Going out to the field with his students to study geology and paleontology was one of his educational tools. This led him in 1906 to the Crevillent mountains, an area that he studied in depth until he was the author of the first geological diagrams of this area.
He published them in the Iberian magazine in 1919, a centenary that the Crevillent City Council did not want to miss. And to commemorate this anniversary, he has published a comic about the student’s life, as well as the Iberian facsimile and an exhibition at the Casa de Cultura.
Daniel Jiménez de Cisneros. A life among fossils is the title of the comic with which it is intended to reach the youngest, following the spirit of the professor. It is signed by the Crevillent illustrator Francisco Borja Estela, with texts by Consuelo Jiménez de Cisneros, granddaughter of the paleontologist, and by Ana Satorre and Daniel Belmonte. Bullets and content through which his life is traversed. «It reflects from his birth in Caravaca de la Cruz to his death in Alicante, the places where he lived, in Cartagena as a teacher and later in Gijón, his arrival in Alicante and then there is a second part that focuses more on his stays and jobs in Crevillent », highlights the researcher’s granddaughter.
The exhibition The start of geological and paleontological research in the Sierra de Crevillent, curated by Satorre and Belmonte, opens on Monday, at 8:00 p.m., in the House of Culture of that town and includes objects from IES Jorge Juan, where a good part of its scientific legacy is located, the Museum of Natural History of the University of Valencia, the Museum of Paleontology of Elche and the Environmental Center Los Molinos de Crevillent, in addition to the family that has yielded numerous personal objects, documents, letters and photographs.
The sample is divided into different sections, beginning with a part with the most important milestones in your life, followed by a natural history office, “which the IES Jorge Juan has given us for the most part, from a solar system to his typewriter, which he has lent us the family, fossils, and stuffed animals … Also documents, field notebooks, photographs, letters », highlights Ana Satorre.
A third space focuses on his work in the Sierra de Crevillent, highlighting the visits he made and the publications in the Iberian magazine. “This part is enriched with a model of the mountains in which the four geological tours he made are marked, accompanied by fossils found in the area and the photo camera he used, provided by the family,” says Daniel Belmonte, who highlights that the model is a resource specially designed for people with disabilities, especially the blind, and also for children. “It is the first time that these resources have been used in an exhibition in Crevillent.”
The proposal closes with three spaces dedicated to the Triassic, the Jurassic and the Miocene, for which there have been illustrators who have recreated those environments with fauna from that time in the mountains. There are exhibited for the first time mammal remains found in the Crevillent 2 paleontological site, lent by the Museum of Natural History of the University of Valencia and by Plinio Montoya. “Further fossil reproductions have been made for children to touch »says Satorre. A documentary, directed by Roque Ortiz, that collects his life and in which university experts participate, has also been made.
The program of events for the centenary of the publication of his work in Iberia also includes the edition of the magazine’s facsimile, as well as a book about his work during the 11 years he lived in Gijón before coming to Alicante, from the professor. Agustín Guzmán Sancho with a foreword by Consuelo Jiménez de Cisneros.
The presentation of these publications and the comic will take place on the 27th, at 8.15 pm, in the auditorium of the Casa de Cultura de Crevillent.
“With these last contributions, the studies on my grandfather have been completed”, highlights the granddaughter of Jiménez de Cisneros. “This is a very big step in the recognition of his work, often difficult and obscure because he had no aid and because it was a volunteer work, apart from his work at Jorge Juan.”
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