Esqueda, Maritza

Hello, I’m Maritza Esqueda and my preferred pronouns are she/her/hers. I am currently a 3rd year majoring in Political Science and double minoring in Chicanx Studies and Labor and Workplace Studies. I decided to take this class to expand my knowledge of Chicano/a art, which caught my interest when I took Censored! Art on Trial Fall quarter. With that being said, I am looking forward to gaining more knowledge of Chicanx art through this class, while also developing some art skills.

As I was reading “It’s Not about the Santa in My Fe, but the Santa Fe in My Santa” I was fascinated by the symbolism within Alma’s artwork, Our Lady. The one that stood out to me was the use of the monarch to symbolize migration, more specifically migration between the United States and Mexico. This paralleled to her view of the Virgen as a being a “migrator,” something that she saw growing up as a child in her family. Similarly, as I was growing up and not yet knowing the real story of La Virgen de Guadalupe, I saw her constantly around my home and in my visits to Mexico and quickly realized the significance behind the beautiful image. After examining the altered image Alma composed of La Virgen and reading about the controversy it created, I understand why it would ignite such responses. Most devoted Catholics, would look down upon a picture like this because they would not be able to see past the image itself and ignore the underlying meaning behind the image. La Virgen de Guadalupe has always been viewed in the same format for years, so this unforeseen change was shocking. I think this is why it is important to look at art as something more than just a picture because many of the times there is something more meaningful to it. In this case, Alma created a beautiful, distinct portrait of La Virgen de Guadalupe with a great deal of symbolism that people should take notice of.