List of Famous people born in Cárdenas, Cuba

Elián González Brotons is a Cuban citizen who became embroiled in a heated international custody and immigration controversy in 2000 involving the governments of Cuba and the United States, his father Juan Miguel González Quintana, his other relatives in Cuba and in Miami, and Miami's Cuban community.

Danell Johan Leyva is a Cuban-American former gymnast who competed for the United States. He is the 2012 Olympic individual all-around bronze medalist and 2016 Olympic parallel bars and horizontal bar silver medalist. He is also the 2011 U.S. national all-around gold medalist and the 2011 world champion on the parallel bars.

Ernest Sosa is an American philosopher primarily interested in epistemology. Since 2007 he has been Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University, but he spent most of his career at Brown University.

Gisela Hernández Gonzalo (1912−1971) was a Cuban composer. Aware of political necessity, she established ties with the Castro government in return for recognition of her activities as a music teacher and composer. She was also a member of the nationalistic Grupo Minorista that led a movement to incorporate Afro-Cuban sounds into larger forms of music.