Week 2: La Virgen de Guadalupe/CARA

     When Professor Gaspar de Alba mentioned “art for art’s sake” during her presentation of CARA, I was reminded of the Armory Show in 1913, New York, which at the time was the first celebration of modern art in America. It draws parallels to CARA in that both shows were meant to expose Americans to the realities of contemporary art—the Armory Show the significance of aesthetic as the advent of the camera released artists from the idea of “realistic” representation, and CARA as a voice of a movement and a representation of the reality of a people. CARA also reminds me of Daumier and the French Realists, who like the Chicano artists, seek to bring attention to injustices done unto them. The Chicano/a art movement is a fresher idea in that the subject matters are more pertinent to the times, however I cannot help but ask if racism had anything to do with the veneration of European modern art and European realism, since there has only been ONE CARA exhibition. Was it too real for Americans? Did it instill too much empathy for a “minority?”

     When my copy of Yolanda Lopez’s book arrived in the mail, I thumbed through all of the pictures and instantly started reminiscing in the Virgenes de Guadalupe that pervaded my childhood. The most important VDG in my life has been a print on a wood panel that my mom has had longer than my memory can stretch. My earliest memory of that piece in particular was surviving an earthquake in the early 90s—I remember my mother gathering up her five children during the rumbling and hugging la Virgen with one arm and us with the other. When the earth stopped rumbling, she hugged us one by one and finally la Virgen. I am the type to sit and stare at an image for hours and absorb its minutiae until my brain feels sore, and that miraculous, natural phenomenon-protector, print of la Virgen was one such image. My perception of la Virgen de Guadalupe has always been that of a young white woman covered from head to toe in cloth, with her head turned down, but never did I think, what if she wasn’t white; what if her neck got sore; what if she was burning up under all of that fabric? So when I saw Lopez’s images, I immediately started asking all of these questions from a feminist perspective. I was glad that we were able to look closer at some of Lopez’s work because I think it asks questions that deserve answers. Although I am not a religious person, la Virgen, to me, is an idea of a woman generated by men, who is an exemplary role model for their daughters and wives. She can be miraculous while keeping her head down and her body covered up.