" Si La Virgencita lo permite"

La Virgen de Guadalupe has been an icon of protection, faith and hope that occupies a special role in my family as well as in my community.  I grew up with the image of La Virgen being present in the kitchen calendar, quilts, frames, small ‘recuerdos’, candles, tattoos, and murals.  Her image is associated with the motherly qualities that makes an individual feel at ease.  I have never felt a devoted faith towards La Virgen, but I have infinite respect just like I do to any mother and mujer.  To me she is an icon of respect and high esteem that my family and community are devoted to. I find that her symbolism can be interpreted to be for a feminine audience, however, seeing my male siblings/ community members engage with La Virgen influences my conclusion that La Virgen can at times be a non-gendered conforming icon.  For example, my older brother has a tattoo of La Virgen that he proudly shows-off not as a reminder of ‘how/what’ mujeres are out to be, instead, as an expression of mutual importance and power.  Alicia Gaspar de Alba writes, “There’s no place like Aztlan” where she explores the relationship between identity aesthetics and their relationship to mainstream social representation.  During lecture, Gaspar de Alba discussed the minimal inclusion of Chicana artist in the CARA exhibition that further marginalized the identity of Chicana feminist.  She concluded with an image “ Guadalupe walking” by Yolanda Lopez and explored how La Virgen’s icon can be further deconstructed to represent diverse Chicana feminist politics of identity. I appreciate the feminist interpretation of La Virgen because they produce different iconography for her role La Virgen plays within my community and family.  For instance, by displaying La Virgen’s image to represented the multiple identities of Chicana feminist and their association to La Virgen; the community as a whole is taking steps to break away from essentialist gender roles while at the same time simply expanding its faithful symbolism.  Overall, I enjoyed the questioning of La Virgen’s origins because since I was a kid I accepted her role without knowing what it meant and it is fascinating to take a step back to explore it development.