Week 2

I found Professor Gaspar de Alba's lecture extremely interesting. Not only did she talk about more specific Chicana artists, but her work in relation to the CARA exhibition provided a recent understanding of public representations of Chicanas. I liked how she explained the trajectory of "Chican" exhibitions since then, and the how the idea of "post-Chicano" has become a thing. I think discussing the pros and cons of that idea and the associations of the word Chicana/o, is very useful to understand how art and artists fall under the term or identity of "Chicana/o". Does an artist choose to be labeled as Chicana/o and does categorization come from identity or content?

In my family, the Virgen of Guadalupe was more a cultural icon than a religious one. When I would see objects or images of the Virgen,  was reminded of Mexican culture more than religious affiliation. The image is such a strong part of Mexican identity, that despite the story behind the Virgen, she stands for a much larger part of Mexican family culture than just the Church. To my family, it was also a reminder of place, when arriving somewhere the image is on everyday objects, or street murals, or curbside altars, it feels as though we are in an area with Latinos, or a reminder that we are in Mexico. The Virgen wasn't an image in my neighborhood, but was in my grandmother's neighborhood in Southern California, and my aunt and uncles neighborhood in Mexico.

As a child, because the religious meaning affiliated with the Virgen was not something taught to me, I didn't notice her gendered role as much as perhaps my female cousins did. I think others in my family may have felt the pressure to be Virgen "perfect" more so, yet despite that, the feminist reinterpertations are valid because they represent the personal connection people experience with the Virgen. Questioning her manmade role is just as fair of a personal expression as believing the legend as well.