MOTHERHOOD, BAPTISM, AND ARTICULATION AMONG BLACK WOMEN IN ARICA AND ITS VALLEYS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

This document analyzes the eighteenth-century baptism records from parochial archives in Arica and the Lluta and Azapa valleys of present-day northern Chile. It examines how enslaved black women, in the face of colonialism and motherhood, used this sacrament as a powerful mechanism of resistance, weaving intricate parental and friendship networks. The study also explores the conditions under which these baptisms took place and how the Afro-descendant female population, both enslaved and freed, organized themselves through a system of alliances via godparents linked to ethnic groups or the elite, such as landowners and priests. These actions allowed for a double articulation with the authorities and within their families or Afro and Indigenous communities.