Virgen LMA, 1999, Acrylic on Bristol, 30"x40"

The Guadalupe has always been a source of curiosity for me ever since I was a child. My grandmother used to tell me the story of Juan Diego and the Guadalupe. Because she suffered from poverty as an immigrant from Mexico, and because she was named after the Guadalupe, my grandmother always felt a spiritual kinship to her. Growing up Catholic also reinforced the presence of a mother, but a virgin mother, with less power. As an artist, the Guadalupe became an inspiration for reinterpretation. For the LMA series, I decided to reverse her traditional adult personae into a developing adolescent, a time when young women undergo sexual duality: the desire to be a woman but the refusal to accept its responsibilities.