Tradition / Region: Taíno culture, Cuban Mythology
Alternative names: Opia, Opi’a, Op’a, Operi’to
Category: Ghost
The Myth
The Hupia is the spirit of a person who has passed from the world of the living. In Taíno belief, the spirit of the living was known as the goeiza, but after death it became a Hupia and journeyed to a distant earthly paradise called Coaybay.
Unlike the spirits of the living, Hupias possessed no fixed form. They could assume many appearances and often took the shape of ordinary people or even deceased relatives. However, one feature always revealed their true nature: a Hupia in human form had no navel.
These spirits were closely associated with bats. They were believed to hide or sleep during the daytime and emerge only at night. Under the cover of darkness, they wandered the world and fed upon guava fruits.
Some traditions describe Hupias as faceless beings, while others portray them as nearly indistinguishable from ordinary humans except for the absence of the navel. Because they could mimic the appearance of loved ones, encounters with them could be unsettling and deceptive.
For the Taíno, death itself was not viewed as an end but as a transformation. The spirit did not cease to exist but continued its existence as a Hupia, dwelling in Coaybay and moving between the worlds of the living and the dead beneath the cover of night.
Sources
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Hupia. In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 20, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hupia