2020 Hernandez,Jennifer

  Yolanda had a lot of inspiring artwork but the one that really stood out to me was the portrait of her as the Our Lady of Guadalupe. The art piece of “Our Lady of Guadalupe”, 1978, is essentially a part of her series called the “Guadalupe Series”. In the picture, there are 3 pictures as a collage that the artist drew to represent herself, her mother and grandmother. In the first one thereof herself, it is a duplication of the background from the original “Lady of Guadalupe” portrait but she replaces the Virgen with a picture of herself running out of the picture. She has a flag on her back like a cape and a snake in her hand. I love this picture because it shows the strength that a woman has. Her legs are toned and it looks like she is running out of the picture to the audience. The second image in the collage is of her mother. This figure really spoke to me for many reasons, but I especially appreciated hoe she remained to give the audience an identity to her mom’s story and because I am a mother myself, I was able to put myself in the picture. The picture shows her mom sitting down and sewing. It shows the strength that women have to survive by any means by working to make sure they have what they need. The third image is her grandmother sitting down with a knife in one hand. She looks tired but strong and content with not having to fight the same battles as before. The Guadalupe Series, which showed a collage of stereotypical Chicana women that showed the artist herself, her mother, and her grandmother attracted praise for putting a stop to the thoughts that Anglos have about the average Mexican women. We are by far ordinary, average or typical, and the art of Yolanda M. Lopez shows that in her art.