“The iconography of Chicano self-determination: race, ethnicity, and class”

Shifra Goldman’s article, “The iconography of Chicano self-determination: race, ethnicity, and class”, discusses “the quest for self identity” that Chicanas/os were undergoing as a result of a history of oppression by the dominant Anglo-American culture. Chicanas affirmed their identities by celebrating their intersectionalities of gender, race, ethnicity, and class and by reflecting their realities through their art. Yolanda Lopez’s Guadalupe series proposed a new meaning to Chicana womanhood, which “validated working class women’s experiences”, and challenged traditional notions of Chicana women’s identity. In doing so, she is representing the self-determination of Chicanas and people of color in order to regain empowerment through their identities and affirm their own culture. In Lopez’s work Margaret F. Stewart: Our Lady of Guadalupe, she is presenting a portrait that is not only a representation of her mother but also of women’s labor and lived realities as a whole. The painting depicts her mother at work behind an industrial sewing machine where she is not only making a cloak but also her own destiny; proving her self-determination. Through her art works, Lopez wants to emphasize the hard work and agency of women of color in order to validate their experiences. Furthermore, I personally like this piece because I can easily identify the woman in the painting as my own mother or aunts who also worked as industrial seamstresses.