Spencer, Tadeo (Week 3)

Ever since I was a child, I have been surrounded by the image of la Virgen de Guadalupe. My mother and father are both Catholic, and they are both Latinx, so naturally they also grew up around images of la Virgen. As I look around my parents’ house, I see her in several places: a painting on the wall, the picture on my bracelet, and some solicitation letters sent through the mail, which my mother always keeps. Plus, my dad wears her image on a medallion. 

Despite this, I know very little about the story of la Virgen, and not much about Catholicism in general. As a very young child, my family attended church weekly, but then we all fell ill with chronic illness, and it became difficult to attend. Whenever I needed to step outside to puff on my inhaler or take medication, people always gave me funny looks. Judgement, I would think jokingly. Inevitably, sick people would come to church, and then one of us would be infected, and we would have to skip attending for a week or two. Eventually, it grew to be too much of a risk, we were forced to stop attending, and I never received my Holy Communion or Confirmation.

 

When I look at images of la Virgen, I feel like an outsider looking in. I understand her historical and cultural significance as a Chicanx/Latinx, the reclamation of her image by Chicanas challenging the ways her image has been used to internally colonize women, and the theory that her image was used to convert indigenous peoples who previously believed in Tonantzin to Catholicism; but I know close to nothing about her religious significance. I wear a bracelet with her image to keep away the evil eye, so my attachment to her is built more upon superstition than religion. Fear of an “other” rather than devotion to Catholicism.

 

And yet, when I see my mother pray every night, I am reminded of how important la Virgen is to so many people. She symbolizes  hope, a sign that our people – Chicanxs and Latinxs – are watched over by some greater power. That, despite all the terrible things we might endure in this racist, ableist, heteronormative, etc., society, we are not alone. Perhaps this explains why many artists choose to reclaim her image rather than remove it from our consciousness entirely – it is too important to lose.

My family's image of la Virgen, as well as my bracelet.