"Im with Nanny" Laura Alvarez

Laura Alvarez was so inspiring to me, I was blown away by her as the story unfolded about her mother and father and how she developed it into a 20-something-year concept of “Double Agent Sirvienta.”  As a young woman who loves to do art myself, I sometimes find myself wanting a more impressive life to gain inspiration from, and she reaffirmed that any background or life can serve as a creative foundation. Her mother and father’s professions as well as her interest in spy movies proves to be just that, a real feminist standpoint and social commentary coming from her own experiences.

I think the piece “I’m with Nanny” is one of my favorite pieces she discussed in class. It is clever and humorous while also touching on important topics such as the labor of raising children and the culture of wealth in white America, which commonly disconnects parents from their children because the nanny ends up raising the child. She took this idea and formulated it into a storyline of the little blond child being a partner in crime to the spy. I also loved her incorporation of Virgin de Guadalupe on the apron, which she drew as another variation of “Double Agent Sirvienta” with her head down praying, it resembles her other anime work as well.

Overall, Laura Alvarez was a total inspiration and I found so many threads of feminist perspective in her artwork and created a strong and powerful character that has developed and lasted throughout decades.