Nuestra Madre - Yolanda Lopez

Nuestra Madre is one of Yolanda M. Lopez's most moving pieces as well as one of her more well known works. In it she co-opts the traditional iconography of La Virgen de Guadalupe including the star-spangled cloak, crescent moon, and sun-rayed background. What immediately stands out though is that in place of La Virgen's body there stands a figure that references three females: Guadalupe, Tonantzin and Coatlicue (Davalos, 96). The figure has a masked face, pointy boobs, taloned feet, and a skirt made out of interwoven serpents. This figure is not "beautiful" in the classic Western sense and if I am speaking honestly is quite hideous. Coatlicue and Tonanztin draw from pre-Colombian indigenous cosmology, the former being the goddess of the moon and stars and the latter being a Nahuatl mother goddess (96). This image represents a reformulation of traditional Catholic iconography that touches base with pre-Colombian spirituality. As Anita Brenner states in Idols behind Altars indigenous beliefs did not disappear with conquest but rather sneaked their ways into traditional folk Catholic beliefs/idols where they could be worshiped by Mexico's indigenous and mestizo populations (qtd in, 97). Lopez brings these once "closeted", and hidden idols in Mexican folk Catholicism to the forefront, and proudly and blatantly displays them in Nuestra Madre.  

I personally view this goddess as unattractive and I wonder if these sentiments are informed by my conditioning as a man in a Latinx household. Regardless of  Nuestra Madre attractiveness this image is a powerful one and looking at it invokes a sense of awe in me. The figure gives off a sense of immense power, her face to me is a groaning invitation into worlds unknown, where she commands forces beyond our understanding. I do not develop these same feelings while in the presence of the traditional and classic version of La Virgen de Guadalupe.