Thrown to the Crocodiles
This corpus of photographs came into existence from the meeting between the movement of a trip and the shadows of the history of the Dominican Republic.
Apart from tourism, Haiti’s better half keeps her secrets.
And sometimes they assail us, like an old chorus.
Can we access a place whilst moving?
When looking, what do we see, in the impossible vertigo of others?
The scars erupt and we try to fix them, but what, in this transient moment?
Colombo Lighthouse
It is said that it was in 1923, at the V Pan-American Conference that it was decreed the construction, by all the peoples of America, of a mausoleum to celebrate the arrival of Christopher Columbus.
In Santo Domingo, his first city. The works ended in 1992, for the 500 years anniversary of this arrival. 2,600 square meters cross-shaped, 251 beacons of light.
They say that you can see the light from Puerto Rico. And that it diverts electricity around it.
Canibal Banana
From the road you see strange fields of banana trees. High severed trunks pass interminably. The old banana trees, their heads severed, which no longer allows them to give fruit, which is increasingly rare. For that the small banana trees, planted their feet, enjoy the sweetness of years buried in that place, and take them their taste, in young bananas, many and succulent ones.
May, 30
The road that connects Santo Domingo to San Cristóbal. It was in the night of the 30th of May 1961 at kilometer 9, that an ambush strafed Rafael Trujillo, the bloody dictator, the Goat’s Feast[1].
The car was hit by 60 bullets. The road is called today Autopista 30 de Mayo (Highway 30 May).
Facing the Caribbean Sea.
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Thrown to the Crocodiles is a photographic project, with exhibition and edition scheduled for 2017. © Madalena Miranda
Footnotes
- ^ Mario Vargas Llosa, La fiesta del chivo, 2000 – The Feast of the Goat.