Afamado attended public school, and in her home she received an open and free education, in which art, letters, and music were encouraged.
The 1974 almanac of the Montevideo Engraving Club, titled Canción con todos, with Gladys Afamado's cover, was censored and removed from circulation by the de facto government.
[4][5] In 1984, she traveled to Spain on a competitive scholarship, where she attended a paper craft course in Capellades, with Laurence Barker and Frederic Amat, material that she would later use in her works.
In 1986, she took a postgraduate course in metal engraving at the National Museum of Visual Arts, taught by David Finkbeiner of the State University of New York at Purchase.
Afamado's work is known for female figures with large eyes that look directly at the viewer, characteristic of the stage of the editions of the Montevideo Engraving Club.