Juan is the official geographer of the National Geographic Society. He guides and assists the Map Policy Committee in setting border representations, disputed territories, and naming conventions.
Juan also serves as the director of editorial and research for National Geographic Maps, where his prime responsibility is to ensure accuracy and consistency for all maps and map products.
EARLY WORK
Juan was born in Havana, Cuba, and spent time in Miami, Florida, as a boy. He remembers coming to Washington, D.C., in winter 1963: “The first thing that struck me was that all the trees had lost their leaves, and it got dark very early. I thought that Washington was the ends of the Earth.”
Juan stayed in the Washington area, where he studied geography and cartography at the University of Maryland in College Park. After college, he worked as a cartographer at the World Bank.
Before long, Juan found his way to the halls of National Geographic, starting off as a typographer in the cartographic department in 1975. “In order to master the craft of cartography, it was almost like a trade apprenticeship; when you walked in the door, you were immediately put into the typographic section, familiarizing yourself with the Society's typefaces and sticking type on . . . overlays. Once you mastered that art—and it was an art, because it was done manually—after you mastered that, you could go into map production, research, or editorial,” says Juan.
Juan found his cartographic niche in researching and editing maps, eventually working his way to a lead position as director for Editorial and Research.
In his time at National Geographic, Juan has seen a lot of changes in the way maps are produced and information is gathered. “It’s been the rapidity of accessing information—that’s been the most amazing thing to occur over the past 20 years,” he says. “What took years, if not months, to generate, you can now do it in days, if not hours.
“Back then, no one blinked an eye if you had to get on a plane to go to the source to get the information. Consequently, the time to produce a map was a lot longer; a typical supplement map [usually published in National Geographic magazine] could take as long as a year. Now it can take five weeks or less.”
MOST EXCITING PART OF YOUR WORK
“I think what’s most exciting is that you really don’t realize what a dynamic place this Earth is until you map it on a daily basis. You’re constantly bombarded with new changes, and not just political changes—fault lines, changing mountain heights . . . The Earth really is a very dynamic place!”
MOST DEMANDING PART OF YOUR WORK
“Keeping your finger on the pulse of geopolitical issues, when that pulse can be rather erratic; it can be really static one day, and the next it’s going off the chart, changes needed on a map coming at you left and right.”
HOW DO YOU DEFINE GEOGRAPHY?
“From my perspective, I think geography, whether consciously or subconsciously, is what provides context to our lives. What I mean by that is at the most basic level, where you live pretty much dictates who [you] are. At a more abstract level, your daily functions—whether it be the food you eat, the beverages that you drink, or the type of car that you drive—are all one way or another dictated by geography.”
GEO-CONNECTION
Juan starts his day by sitting down at his desk and checking newspapers and news websites for any changes in the world’s geography that might have occurred overnight. He checks his messages on email and phone to see if any of his colleagues at the U.S. State Department or foreign embassies have new information on changing place names, political boundaries, or physical features of the Earth.
Then, it’s off to the races—researching and editing maps for the Map Policy Committee at the National Geographic Society. Juan and his team of map editors and researchers compile and edit maps that appear in atlases, magazines, websites, mobile apps, and other products that National Geographic publishes.
“Sometimes readers will write, email, or call to let us know of a place-name change; we’ll do follow-up research to verify the change,” Juan says. If the change is verified and approved by the Map Policy Committee, it will be updated the next time a map containing that name is published.
In the last quarter of 2010 alone, Juan says, the Netherlands Antilles were dissolved, Louisiana officially changed its state flag, and the Queen Charlotte Islands, off the coast of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, were renamed Haida Gwaii. “Many place names throughout the world are reverting to their former indigenous or historical names, while others are being officially named in dual languages,” he says.
According to Juan, maps of the United States are typically updated three times a year. When such changes occur, Juan will put out an email notifying the Map Policy Committee, as well as the staff of the National Geographic GeoBee. GeoBee staff members need to be informed of changes right away because they are responsible for formulating questions for geography competitions held around the country.
SO, YOU WANT TO BE A . . . GEOGRAPHER
To be an adept geographer, Juan recommends dabbling in a wide variety of academic subjects. “Geography needs to be your core area of focus in your studies, but in today’s world you also need to be a generalist—you need to know a little bit about every subject, whether it be history, mathematics, or the arts; they’re all interconnected,” he says.
GET INVOLVED
To stay on top of geographic issues, Juan recommends brushing up on your knowledge of history. “With a good background in history, you can see exactly how all the pieces of current-day events are interconnected to the past, the present, and ultimately the future.” Checking daily news from around the world helps.
