CARA / La Virgen de Guadalupe

I was first introduced to La Virgen de Guadalupe by small trinkets and little tin decorative frames with Guadalupe inside that were in various places that I lived and visited. My upbringing as a Chicana girl that looks majorly white in a adamantly agnostic household was complicated. Part of the main reason we weren't religious was because my mothers mom raised her in a strict catholic environment which she rejected for her more radical values as she grew older. While we remained an agnostic family, my grandmother was still there. She would visit and tell us catholic bible stories, and always the story of Guadalupe and Juan Diego. La Virgen had a place in my life as an icon in which to appreciate for cultural and aesthetic reasons, not something to worship. Visiting my family in New Mexico and my mothers love for Mexican food and aesthetic, and eventual opening of her own restaurant, was what brought Guadalupe into my world. 

The feminist interpretations of La Virgen de Guadalupe encapsulates her role in my life as I grew up. For a lot of people seeing Guadalupe with a shorter dress and walking shoes, or running or sewing or doing normal human activities is scary, its breaking the strict role she plays as the pristine virgin or divine mother image. The questioning of this legend is necessary, just like the questioning of difficult topics in different cultures. It must be done in order for progress to be made.