Because it is said that the future of humanity depends on children, we often focus on what influences their lives and try to identify the important figures that help to mold them. Most often these important figures are women. Throughout history females have been designated as caregivers., The essential activities of reproduction, to be in charge of children, elders, spouses, underage students and adult age bosses. In the private context of the home mothers as housewives were the cornerstone of economy by performing unpaid domestic jobs. But once middle class mothers began taking paid jobs outside home, and more recently as freelancers or entrepreneurs, other women performed the domestic jobs. In Peru, where this job was extremely cheap and often in the blind spot of law, the concept of housekeeper and nanny merged under one name: empleada.
Even though empleadas play an integral part in the development of children, we know little about the women who, in this role, pass on parts of their culture, beliefs and values. They are generally invisible to the eye of society, yet they are responsible for the emotional education of the children.
As a Peruvian, born and raised in Lima, the image of domestic help had always seemed common to me. However, after living in the United States for several years, I began to see that the tradition of empleadas, as common characters within the middle class households in main cities, was a result of the particular historic and social development of Peru in the last decades. It was terrorism and economic violence that forced massive migration and along with the alienation of lower class women that allowed empleadas to be kept by higher income relatives or total strangers. My personal background between Peru and United Stated removed the normalization of the empleada and made me understand the uniqueness of her role despite the minimization of their role by Peruvian society.
Therefore, I decided to present these women as icons of Lima through the lens of my camera and the admiration in my heart. I believe that making these women the main subjects of my images makes visible the story of their lives and can create an identity for them as an important part of Lima’s identity in a mestizo culture.
To bring this idea to life, I chose the Peruvian retablo. A retablo is a three dimensional cultural or religious altarpiece mainly from the region of Ayacucho. It consists of standing rectangular boxes with doors that tell a story or describe a story in a single scene or a composition of scenes displaying small figures and paintings with an outstanding individual detail in each one. These figures and paintings may represent religious scenes and icons, or scenes of everyday life and traditions. In the past years, retablos escalated quickly from the category of craft to art, being officially named Cultural Patrimony of the Nation by the Ministry of Culture on June, 2019.
I reinvented the retablo as “Retablos of Lima” to present the caregivers and the children they helped to raise as iconic images of Lima. By focusing on these relationships the impact and importance of these women transcends what was meant to be an economical relationship. The result is an unbreakable bond, a maternal-filial love between two unrelated people that survives over the years and overcomes the conventions of social classes.