"Pray for Your Enemies" - Week Four - Laura Alvarez

The image I chose from Ms. Laura Alvarez’ work is the “Prayer” sketch. This sketch brings to mind many feelings of empowerment, humility, but also strength. I appreciated the lines and the focal point of the image, it reminds me of some of the renaissance artists who often used mathematical equations and geometry to map out where they would place their subjects and the elements around them.

In Chicana Sexuality and Gender, Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands/La Frontera, “draws on personal and collective memory to rewrite Chicana/o history and construct a Chicana cultural symbol" (97). Similarly, I believe Alvarez is drawing upon family memory, if not, perhaps a dream. If you look in the background, there seems to be a couple holding hands, whether or not these figures represent a heterosexual or homosexual couple is unclear; however, Alvarez makes her subject the focal point; and through this image we see by the subject's linking of hands and erect body posture a political and religious gesture. Alvarez reminds us the importance of spirituality and prayer.

In comparison to the some of the early imagery displaying Chicana/o heritage and culture, the Virgen de Guadalupe is an excellent example of the illustrious need for spirituality and self; and likewise, Alvarez clearly reminds us of the power of self in her character, or subject – her mom/self- the maid, caretaker, and worker. Additionally, the image brings to life nature and in the distance, youth and innocence through the imagery of small children, or youth-like attitude with figures in the trees. The woman praying holds her stance strong, and is not distracted by her environment. What really inspires me in this work is the obvious rebellion by gender and body politics. Typically, images of women in the past highlight sexual features, and/or are dominated by men in positioning. In this image, the woman praying is center, and still, there is no one like her. Even in religious propaganda of the Spanish colonists, or the Catholic church, most imagery would not hold a woman in such high regard with such reverence and stillness. In The Last Generation, Cheerie Moraga exposes ‘patriarchal social constructions’ and uses rebelliousness as a form of expression in her work”

“She resurrects the goddess as the Christlike figure who sacrificed her body to inspire future generations to rebellion.” – Moraga on The Last Generation

https://lauraalvarezart.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/prayer-in-the-garden.jpg