Yolanda M. Lopez’s Nuestra Madre from the Guadalupe series was a stand-out piece of art for me, while reading Karen Davalos’s book on Lopez I came across it and immediately was drawn to it due to its message and its uniqueness compared to her other works. Most of Lopez’s art work, aesthetic wise, focuses on the contemporary feminine body, de-sexualized, to show what a Chicana really looked like beyond the “homeboys” expectations. Lopez’s Nuestra Madre gives the body of not just the human Chicana form but of ancient form as well. The piece is a combination of La Virgen and her recognizable aura, moon, and cloak but also combines this backdrop with Tonantzin the Earth Mother of Nahuatl origin and Coatlicue the Aztec creation Goddess all combined in glorious fashion. It’s message is also profound, both Mesoamerican deities symbolize life creation and life taking autonomous from men, her breasts hang low to symbolize her experience in nurturing life and strays away from the “ideal” firm breasts as mentioned in Davalos’s reading, her snake skirt symbolizing knowledge and wisdom of all earthly things. She is truly a mother and symbol worthy of sharing the alter with La Virgen. “Nuestra Madre” seems to be a direct call to action for Chicana women to claim that this is our mother of liberation, a mother worth acknowledgement. It was mentioned that the apparition story of La Virgen to the indigenous was confused with their deity of Tonantzin in an effort to convert the people to Catholicism; their eagerness to convert in thoughts of worshiping Tonantzin seems to come full circle with this piece by shedding the image of La Virgen revealing the image of Tonantzin to be worshiped today in a sense with a fitting title of “Nuestra Madre.” I enjoyed reading about Lopez’s work and especially coming across this piece for its imagery and Chicana Feminist message.
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