Week 8: Carmen Lomas Garza

One of my favorite images of Carmen Lomas Garza is Cama Para Sueños. This painting really speaks to me on a very personal level. In the same way that Garza’s mother is setting the example for her two daughters and building a bed filled with tradition and culture, my mother has done the same for me. Fitting into the gender norms of Mexican culture has not been easy. As a child I was given dolls to play with, when I wanted to play in the mud, as a young girl I was told to wear dresses even though I heated dresses. And now at the age of 23, I am expected to be searching for a man to spend the rest of my life with, because if I wait to long I will never be able to have children, this is according to Mexican tradition. So when I look at Garza’s painting I see two young girls up on the roof with dreams, and in between themselves and the moon there is nothing stopping them. The mother represents a structure for the way these girls will grow up to be, no matter what the two girls become in life they will always have their culture as a base for the building of their character. I know that no matter what I go through in life I will always have my traditions and cultures to fall back to, so when I am feeling lost I can always find myself.