Ancestral Mothers, Feminine Icons, and Black Madonnas in the Works of Susan Caperna Lloyd

Abstract

Born in California and raised in Oregon, Susan Caperna Lloyd is a documentary maker, a photographer, and a non-fiction writer. In 1983 she first visited Terracina, the coastal town in Southern Latium her Italian ancestors on her father’s side originally came from. On that occasion, she also travelled further south to Sicily, a land she felt profoundly and almost inexplicably drawn to, and where, on Good Friday, she witnessed i Misteri (the Mysteries), an evocative procession held in Trapani. Nineteen life-size statues representing the stations of the Cross paraded through the streets of the city for 24 hours, carried on heavy platforms (ceti) by male porters only (portatori).