Los Mujeres by Israel Mora

1 La Virgen

imora051 — 2025-03-22 06:52:26 UTC

Although rather bland, some of the most positive rhetoric about women present in the Catholic church relates to the beloved Virgen de Guadalupe. Nurturing, kind, and pious. She exists in the interesting space of a state approved indigeneity, the lore surrounding her helps link the indigenous Nahua peoples to the imperialist Spanish Catholic project. Despite this history of this more subtle violence, she exists today as a lowkey feminist icon and generally beloved and respected figure within working class Mexican and Chicano communities. A universal adoration towards her and subsequent celebrations, allow for a community oriented space for people who have very little. The only good memories I have of the church are within her presence.

2

imora051 — 2025-03-22 06:52:37 UTC

An unveiling of La Virgen. The blue velvet dress is regal and also acts as a way to counter the conservative culture of Catholicism. The big gold hoops and teardrop harkens back to contemporary Chicana culture. Her gaze pierces the viewer as she unveils her face in stark contrast to the classic paintings depicting her with her downward gaze.

3

imora051 — 2025-03-22 06:53:04 UTC

The veil off. La Virgen stares directly at you once more with a confidence that lets you know your place. To queer her in this way is very cliché, so cliché one might even call it a right of passage for a queer Mexican artist. But regardless, her existence as a successful piece of propaganda for the Spanish allows for an interesting analysis of how those forces operated. Similar to the history presented in Debora Miranda's article "Extermination of the Joyas: Gendercide in Spanish California," the lore surrounding her was crafted in a way that allowed for an assimilation of the native peoples into the religion. Much like the killing of those who handled the ceremonial burying of the dead, and swooping in with the Church's methods as a substitute (Miranda, p. 275). A manufactured problem to funnel their own solution. The intersection of colonization and its need to eliminate queerness was the motivation for this series. The Joyas', the nonbinary trans indigenous peoples', vengeance lives on through me.

4: la Malinche

imora051 — 2025-03-22 06:57:18 UTC

La Virgen, La Puta: the Virgin, the Whore. Malintzin, or more popularly La Malinche, was the Nahua slave, wife, and interpreter for the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez. She is the traitor. Blamed for the destruction of the pre-contact civilizations, La Malinche is the Mexican cultural zeitgeist's opposite half for the Virgin Mary. Taking the brunt of the blame in a cultural act of misogyny that focuses on her rather than confronting the Spanish's imperial agenda.

4.2

imora051 — 2025-03-22 06:57:42 UTC

To adorn her in flowers and crown, some grace is afforded to her life posthumously that not many care to give. To elevate her in a regal way is to aesthetically give her a chance to be viewed as equals to la Virgen and not as lesser.

5: Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz

imora051 — 2025-03-22 06:58:46 UTC

Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz was a scholar who joined a convent to avoid marriage and continue her studies, something quite unusual in 17th century Mexico. Author Alice Gaspar de Alba re-exams her behavior through a more contemporary lens that not many afford her. Reading the subtext of her life choices as those of a Butch Lesbian Proto-feminist. A woman who donned the veil and married Christ, complains an awful lot of the relaxed convent's rules that hampered her own personal studies. A rejection of heterosexuality, something considered a key component of embodying womanhood, a separation from the social construction of a woman and towards a degendered asexual existence (Gaspar De Alba, p. 147).

5.2 Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz

imora051 — 2025-03-22 06:59:10 UTC

To unveil her is to offer her a small moment of respite from the marriage contract to Christ. An act done to escape Men of flesh, yet still contributing towards her subjugation from Men. To use Foucault's ideas of domination, the marriage to the Church allows for a corporeal substitution of the Pope and priests. The owns who controlled the flow of ideas and cultural norms, surrogate husbands who engage in surrogate power over her (p.148).

Works cited

imora051 — 2025-03-22 09:06:57 UTC

Gaspar de Alba, Alicia. "Interview with Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz". [Un]framing the "Bad Woman": Sor Juana, Malinche, Coyolxauhqui, and Other Rebels with a Cause, New York, USA: University of Texas Press, 2014, pp. 54-64. https://doi.org/10.7560/757615-005

Lara, Irene. “Goddess of the Américas in the Decolonial Imaginary: Beyond the Virtuous Virgen/Pagan Puta Dichotomy.” Feminist Studies, vol. 34, no. 1/2, 2008, pp. 99–127. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20459183. Accessed 22 Mar. 2025.

Miranda, Deborah A., (Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen Nation, Chumash). "Extermination of the Joyas: Gendercide in Spanish California." GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, vol. 16 no. 1, 2010, p. 253-284. Project MUSE, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/372454.