Lavin Solano, Veronica

 

    Hello! My name is Veronica, and my preferred pronouns are she/her. I’m a fourth-year English major, and I’m particularly interested in narrative writing as well as animation. Outside of my chicano/a/x artist friends, I haven’t had much exposure to the foundation and history of Chicanx art. I’m looking forward to learning about artists who I can look up to as well as relate to.

    The article assigned to us called “Conditions for Producing Chicana Art'' by Sybil Venegas struck a chord with me, especially regarding the bit about Catholicism that then-contemporary Chicanas––especially Chicana artists––reject the notion of virginity, perfection, and devotion that women are expected to emulate from la Virgen de Guadalupe. My former teenage-self definitely identifies with this; for many years, I emotionally distanced myself from the religious ceremonies that my family would perform–– I was uncomfortable with Catholicism because of my sexuality, and I felt badly about myself because I couldn’t relate to the sexual purity represented in la Virgen de Guadalupe.

    It doesn’t end there, though! The very end of the article, where Venegas says that the ever-evolving consciousness of the Chicano community as well as the dominant Anglo-society, reminded me of the new experiences and reactions to those experiences which I am now experiencing as a first-generation college student. I consider myself a second-generation Chicana, because my mom immigrated to the United States when she was roughly twelve years old. I’m sure she too at one point (and maybe still does) felt disillusioned by the submissive role attributed to women due to la Virgen de Guadalupe. Interestingly though, I’ve found myself gravitating back towards Catholicism after having spent my recent college years surrounded by a predominantly white student body here at UCLA. Even though I disagree with so much of what the organized religion around Catholicism stands for, I nowadays find myself looking at la Virgen de Guadalupe from a new, fonder perspective. I think it shows in my recent work too. All in all, this is what ran through my head reading the second assigned article. I look forward to our future readings!