Yolanda M. Lopez's Virgen de Guadalupe series

After reading Karen Mary Davalos’ book Yolanda M. López, I immediately took interest in her Virgen de Guadalupe series. López combines portraits of “ordinary women” (including herself, her mother, and her grandmother) with traditional Mexican Catholic imagery. For example, the radiating blue and gold auras and star-spangled cloaks align the three women with the Virgen de Guadalupe in terms of their clothes. The images also contain symbols like snakes, angels, flowers, and knives to add additional narrative meanings to each piece. Expression also plays a big role in the triptych. For example, Yolanda is smiling and running in an exuberant manner in Portrait of the Artist as the Virgen of Guadalupe. This might suggest that she is happy with her bodily autonomy and identity as a contemporary Chicana woman. Scale is also interesting in this series because they are all the same size. Unlike traditional triptychs in which the center panel is larger, the equal size of the pieces might be commenting on the equal weight of each generation of women. López also uses a similar color palette (e.g. blue background, golden aura, and pink clothes) in all three images. This creates a sense visual unity between the three parts of the series as well. It will be interesting to examine these formal similarities in her work, and the contemporary spin that she has put on traditional Catholic imagery. Within the context of her Chicana background, and the traditional norms held by Mexican Catholic communities, the series can be seen as protest art about the status of women in Chicanx society.