Beatriz Santiago. La Cueva Negra, 2013, Digital color video with sound, 19 min., 48 sec. Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, museum purchase with funds provided by the Bared Family Foundation
La cueva negra offers a contemporary portrayal of El Paso del Indio, an indigenous burial site in Puerto Rico once home to the Taíno people, a group that thrived in the Greater Antilles through the 15th century; the site was discovered 20 years ago during the construction of a major freeway. For this work, Santiago Muñoz interviewed archeologists and workers from the site, as well as two boys living in the area. During her research, one of the archeologists commented that indigenous mythologies in the Americas were unfixed, constantly changing according to the people migrating into the region. Thus, Santiago Muñoz used the original Taíno mythology to augment her rendition of the creation story narrated at the start of the video. Alluding to the material and symbolic histories of El Paso del Indio, this video lacks a linear narrative, and instead focuses on how history and mythologies are constructed and paved on top of one another, confronting the viewer with an alternative representation of the dynamics of this Taíno burial site.