Reflections (Week 10)

     As the quarter draws to a close and we reflect on the many artists and concepts discussed in class, I find it it hard to distill my reflection down to one topic, or one lesson. Each artist offered a new perspective on the experience of Chicanx existence, through their understanding of religion, tradition, colonization, gender inequality, and self identity.

    I believe the viewing of the round-table conversation between Ester Hernandez, Yolanda López, and Alma López in the documentary I Love Lupe (2009) illustrated the broad reaches of Chicana art and the multiple generations of women who have contributed to its legacy.

    While the documentary is generally focused on Catholicism, the image of La Virgen de Guadalupe and all that the deity represents (motherhood, virginity, divine presence), the three artists discuss the intersection of feminism and the Chicano Civil Rights Movement in the mid twentieth-century. Through the deconstruction and revision of La Virgen's image, the artists contemplate its cultural significance in Mexican-American communities, and more relevantly, the lives of Chicana women.

    What did the image symbolize of Chicana womanhood and self-identity? For Yolanda López, this was rendered in her Guadalupe series which illustrated and elevated the role of working class women. For Alma López, the body of La Virgen was reclaimed in defiance of the male gaze which limited the expression of her femininity. For Ester Hernandez, this was by capturing a vulnerable, amorous relationship between two women. The controversy of the three artist's works were striking and enlightening to my understanding of Chicana art, and its influence both within the Mexican-American community and in the greater world of art and all its conventions.