"Hi Manuel, how are you? I hope all is well in Mayagüez.

Here I am, back from Puerto Rico reviewing our recordings, trying to find a structure and a meaning.

This island bathed in light has also been one of the darkest places on earth.

Now I am faced with the task of combining the material we have recorded together with the historical archive.

If you could contribute something, and I am convinced that you can, it would be very useful if at the same time you could attach some voice memos that would help to unveil the significance of that material.

There is between us the link of the Newfoundland salted cod. But I am sure that my ignorance of the Puerto Rican cane fields would overlook the most significant nuances relating to both the “land” and the “territory”.

We could start with the most essential: where that cod came from, who consumed it, how and where?

Anyway, warmest regards.

Take care!"

(...)

"I just came across this recording I made in Mayagüez while playing with a piece of salt rock I had picked up in the Cabo Rojo salt flats.

For some reason I made the recording, and now I find it suggestive.

I find it curious that the island of Puerto Rico was itself a place where salt was extracted and exported, by the Europeans, precisely to salt this Newfoundland cod that would later be consumed in the sugar cane plantations."

(...)

"Thank you Manuel for sharing your knowledge and insight into the cane fields and the salted cod from Newfoundland.

I don’t know, perhaps you would like to close with a personal note.

Either way, we’ll definitely keep talking.

I have the feeling that…"

Script and anthropological research:

MANUEL VALDÉS PIZZINI

MIKEL OTXOTEKO

Camera 1:

EFRAIN FIGUEROA

Camera 2:

MIKEL OTXOTEKO

Filming: MIKEL OTXOTEKO

Financing: San Telmo Museum in Donostia, Sea Grant Programme and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Coastal Studies of the University of Puerto Rico.