70

This article focuses on how an ethnic graphic heritage is established. It is based on a study of paintings made on bark paper (amates) by Nahuatl speakers in South-west Mexico. In my Ph. D. dissertation two decades ago, I adopted an emic perspective. I now take a transnational actor-network approach to examine the interactions between native artists and art lovers, collectors, anthropologists and others. All these social categories contribute to the public recognition of these artworks as part of a cultural legacy. I pay particular attention to the role of the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago as an external expert conferring legitimacy on this process. This museum made it possible to reclassify in its own space of action the status of paintings and painters. It thus created a specific space for translation, allowing the participation of the Hispanic community in Chicago and reception in the social spaces characteristic of the United States’ multiculturalism.