La Virgen

I grew up with the image of La Virgen my entire life. At my paternal grandmother's house in Mexico, she has a large portrait of la Virgen in the living room, as well as smaller icons of her throughout her house. In my own home growing up, the image of la Virgen was always present; we have a medium sized portrait of her in the hallway. Although I grew up with her image and knowing who she was, I never identified with her as an important icon in my own life.

Being raised Catholic, I went church on Sundays, I was baptized, and I did my first communion (when I was fifteen, granted, but better late than never!). In order to be able to have a primera comunion, I had to go to el catecismo, which are weekly classes in which you learn about what it means to be Catholic and what a primera comunion is. I learned el padre nuestro, el ave maria, el credo, every oracion out there, I know it. But even though I know all of my oraciones and a lot of alabanzas, for some reason I have never felt a deeply spiritual connection with the Catholic church. Maybe it is because I was just doing it because that's what you do when you're raised Catholic. So seeing the of image of La Virgen changed with a shorter dressed or doing karate does not offend me. I think she looks relatable when she's depicted doing things everyday women do.

Even though the re-purposed images of La Virgen do not offend me, I can understand why some people would be unhappy with seeing her with a shorter dress. I know if my abuelita saw one of the works of art we studied in class, she would probably have an infarto.