Week Two Discussion Post: Chicanx Graphics in the Digital Age

How did the emergence of Photoshop impact Chicano reception to the photo-based digital collage, Our Lady, created by Alma Lopez? 

    Across the nineteen-nineties, Photoshop made a prompt appearance as an instrument that had the capabilities to manufacture unrealistic standards about the female physique. Consequently and unsurprisingly, devastating repercussions were apparent in the subsequent critiques hurled at artistic productions created by Chicanx artists. Amongst the passage Chicanx Graphics in the Digital Age, one observes the exact consequences Photoshop had on Our Body, a photo-based digital collage piece put together by Alma Lopez. 

    Behind the controversies, the creative piece was bred from the mere need to reconceive the colonial Mexican visualization and comprehension of La Virgen de Guadalupe. In correspondence, professor and contemporary artist Alma Lopez constructed a Guadalupana that stood queer and shameless and denuded with the exception of intimate undergarments. Important to note in consideration is that as produced by Lopez, Our Lady stands unblemished to any implementation of Photoshop. She was cautious of this matter, as she did not want her Guadalupana to be impacted by any form of digital editing and retouching software that would create an unrealistic portraiture. After all, La Virgen was a woman with scars, marks, blemishes, and all. Why conceal this? 

    Seemingly to no surprise, this sentiment did not resonate with Chicano cultural and religious fanatics in the New Mexico region. According to them, La Virgen de Guadalupe remained sacrosanct, and her likeness should remain quintessential. Guadalupe encapsulated more than the commonplace woman and her sanctitude eliminated any imperfections she perhaps possessed. Hence, comparisons formulated between her and the aforementioned commonplace women were an absolute affront to the Chicano fanatics. 

    Bearing these assumptions in heed and recollecting that fanatics moreover abhorred Our Lady because of its supposed inappropriate and blasphemous representation, it comes as no surprise that an additional absence of Photoshop sent them over the brink. Around the time this digital collage piece was produced, the software known as Photoshop had previously been utilized for almost a decade. As a result, media consumers became accustomed to massively re-edited and retouched portraits and photographs that especially warped their perceptions about the female body. Soon, unrealistic facial and bodily features and proportions became staple standards forced upon women. Should one have appeared to not be in keeping with such standards, shame was subsequently brought upon them. This occurred to Alma Lopez and her photo-based collage. Fanatics and community members held that a resounding concern about this piece was the abnormal female physique demonstrated. In simple terms, they could not permit the image and sanctity of la Virgen de Guadalupe to be soiled by an artistic creation that did nothing more than taint her traditional portrayal. Claudia E. Zapata speaks to this when she shares, "The public's negative reception of the ersatz Our Lady was in part a retaliatory response to the absence of photoshopping by Lopez (138)." No doubt, public reception to the reinterpreted Guadalupana was in a word, unfavorable. However, the question must be posed, would fanatics indeed have been less angered had Alma Lopez used even a small fraction of Photoshop? The answer to this question would produce stark revelations about how negatively Photoshop has influenced and corrupted beauty standards within the Chicanx community.