La iconografía del ama de leche en el arte contemporáneo del Atlántico Negro. Relecturas transnacionales e intervenciones en el archivo

This paper delves into the representation of Afro-descendant wet nurses in the Americas’ visual culture, from nineteenth-century-colonial photography up to the present. Starting from the iconography created through this medium, which configures a language used as a tool for social control, we will review how contemporary visual production intervenes in these archives. The relational analysis of pieces created by women artists and based on collections from Brazil, Peru, and the United States, reveals that appropriationist operations are, firstly, a way of dismantling archival dynamics of erasure and stereotyping, allowing for the amplification of its stories, and secondly, a means for engaging the audience in the questioning of hegemonic discourses.