Yolanda M. Lopez

In Chapter Three of Davalos' Yolanda M. López, titled Finding a Language, she explores the various series of art that López created in the 1970s at the University of California, San Diego. One of the series stood out to me was, ¿A Donde Vas, Chicana? Davalos explains this series saying, “The monumental size of the ¿A Donde Vas? Images reformulate this history and culture of worship” (74). The image, Runner: On my Own! (right) from this series is very powerful because López counters the stereotypic image and worship of male athletes. In this work, I realized that female athletes, although prevalent, are not glorified the way that male athletes are, and art like this would give young girls and women, especially Chicanas, role models that are strong and powerful, not just leisurely or doing stereotypical female activities, like cooking and cleaning. I thought this painting was powerful and motivating and allowed me to see myself in it, especially since it contains a Chicana running on her school campus. The location of the Chicana running is one of the most important aspects of the painting for me because I see a lack of Chicanas and Latinas on campus and seeing a woman powerfully sprinting pass a school gives me someone I can identify with.