"Your Vote Has Power" Yolanda M. Lopez in Concern with Iconography

In “Documents of 20^th century Latin American and Latino Art” by Shifra M. Goldman has the topic of self-identity that starts in the Chicano/a art movement. Yet, the main idea that she brings up is the fact that a lot of the art that searches for self-identity connects to leitmotifs (which in this case means a certain iconography). Goldman goes into examples such as using indigenous or as the author refers to as Indian people or even the Virgen de Guadalupe, but one that I was interested about was the famous, but not so common worker.

An artist that is famous for her work with the Virgen de Guadalupe art actually has a specific one on a women worker. Yolanda M. Lopez’s Your Vote Has Power (1997) has a Latino woman making a vote while she has a baby strapped to her back. This “worker” has the identity of a Latino woman, who can’t afford to leave her child or duties as a mother even if she goes to work. It is a stance on what power there is to take and what it means to be a woman in a Latino culture who works for her family. Hence, the caption on the bottom that states “woman’s work is never done”.