Together with Agustín Sánchez and Salustiano Olivera, Francisco Salgado is the founder of cordon spiritism in Cuba, the only one of the three who also left an important body of documents describing the origins and theoretical foundations of spiritism, as well as its different practices. Salgado's writings challenge the idea of the ‘theoretical vacuum’ which, for some researchers, has led to the development of spiritism. It is true that most of its practitioners were more interested in curing than in shaping their own worldview, but the lack of a substantial literature does not turn Spiritism into an arbitrary body of logically unconnected principles that cannot be systematised by the researcher. The present study reconstructs the life of a humble villager from the Cauto valley who became one of the most renowned religious leaders in the region. The miraculous cures he performed and his prophetic anticipations of a more just society, where the poor would find happiness, earned him the recognition and esteem of his contemporaries, who considered him to be out of the ordinary. Thousands of people flocked to the spiritual centre he had built first in Punta de Jagua, Bayamo, and then in Punta de Cana, Manzanillo, where spiritism sessions are held to this day.