My experiences with the iconography of the Virgin of Guadalupe come primarily from attending a Catholic school. For part of middle school and all of high school, the Madonna was a central image. The most significant example that I can remember is a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe that was in the corner of the central courtyard. The experience I had in Catholic school did not give me the most positive impression of Catholicism, but I did always think that statue was pretty and I liked how it was surrounded by plants. I assume this was just landscaping, but I wonder if there was a deeper meaning in surrounding her with plants since she is a symbol of life and motherhood.
I think it is interesting how the Virgin of Guadalupe gets brought up in discourse surrounding the Madonna/whore dichotomy trope. While this discussion comes up in all of literature, my primary interest is film so this is where I have heard about this trope pairing the most. From my impressions of this class so far, it seems that this discussion gets brought up in social movements in addition to media. I found it very interesting that a similar trope pairing comes up in discussions of the Chicane civil rights movement of women who are with the cause and their men versus women who are portrayed to betray the cause for their own interests.
The Virgin of Guadalupe seems to provoke various interpretations and reactions. For some people, the Virgin of Guadalupe figure can be a source of guidance for people's faith and in that sense empowering. For others, the figure may feel restrictive and to confine women to narrowly defined standards of purity and femininity. Since her iconography contains multitudes, it perfectly follows that the themes and messages that the Virgin of Guadalupe represents are explore through art.
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