Yolanda M. Lopez

In Figure 44, Runner: Mandeville Center for the Arts, from ¿A donde vas Chichana? Getting through College series, Davalos engages in the autobiographical sequenced work in which Lopez portrays herself running through the University of California, San Diego. This portrayal was a reflection of Lopez achieving better physical health and endurance after having gained weight from being inactive during her graduate program at UCSD. The importance of this piece as Davalos highlights, is how Lopez as a woman can also engage in vigorous sports that are perceived to be in the male domain. In this figure the campus background Lopez is running through is described as both an informal and formal simplified landscape. The landscape reinforces the image of this institution as bland and in shadows to reflect the artistic failure of the Mandeville Center for arts department at UCSD. This figure illustrates Lopez intent in portraying the school of conceptual art as a symbol of uncovering the failure of encouraging creativity. Furthermore, the landscape serves to display the social oppression these students feel on campus.

I believe these art pieces by Lopez are uniquely important in breaking boundaries. As a Mexican, American born my parents both working class have tried to instill all religious, gender and cultural beliefs. These expectations have been imposed on me regardless of the different lifestyle I live as an undergraduate student pursuing higher education. I am empowered by Lopez's pieces because I feel like the illustration of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and Lopez running in a prestigious university are similar reflection to my experience as a working class daughter. My course of life does not abide to cultural expectations, but her work reinforces my achievements thus far as a woman of color and the potentials I have that are not limited to cultural boundaries.