In the Museum of Latin American Art’s newest exhibit, 14 artists explore the symbolism of the Virgin de Guadalupe through their work.
The Virgin de Guadalupe refers to apparitions of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, that were reportedly first seen in Mexico in the 16th century. Pope John Paul II eventually proclaimed that the Virgin de Guadalupe is the patron saint of the Americas.
“For all of us, for people from Latin America, and especially from Mexico, and for the Chicano and Latino artists that we selected, the image of the Virgin de Guadalupe is so so important,” Co-Curator Gabriela Urtiaga said. “And in different bodies of works of contemporary artists they tried to represent and expand the idea of the Virgin de Guadalupe.”
Photographer Aydinaneth Ortiz and her family have a personal relationship with the Virgin de Guadalupe. An image of the Virgin is engraved into the front door of Ortiz’s home.
“She’s a figure that has been around in my life since I was a child, mainly through my parents […],” Ortiz said. “My community has gravitated towards her and appreciates what she has to offer them.”
Of the photos Ortiz submitted to the exhibition, one shows a portrait of her father, while another captures the inside of his garage, where he keeps the tools he uses as a mechanic and a small carving of the Virgin de Guadalupe.
“It’s me kind of trying to make work or deal with and understand my relationship with my father and who he is and how he’s played a role in my life,” Ortiz said. “And I also want to honor him in the process of making work and highlight him because I feel like he has been a big influence [on] my artistic practice.”
The exhibit “Guadalupe – Queen of the Water, Mother of the Land of the Dead” got its name from a story told to co-curator Amalia Mesa-Bains by Mexican scholar Miguel Leon Cortijo:
In 1531, an Indigenous man named Juan Diego first saw the Virgin de Guadalupe on the hill Tepeyac in what is now part of Mexico City. In some retellings of the story, Diego later told local priests they needed to build a church for the Virgin. But in the version shared by Cortijo, the Virgin told Diego that she was “the queen of the water, the mother of the land of the dead.”
Mesa-Bains connects the title to the Mayan beliefs around cenotes (sinkholes or pits that provide water). Mayans believed that cenotes functioned as portals between this world and the underworld, Xibalba. The famous religious site Chichen Itza was also found to have been built on top of an underground river, and the area is surrounded by cenotes.
“The premise has always been that the spirits live in the water and come into the world that way,” Mesa-Bains said. “So that made sense to me, when he said that she was queen of the waters and mother of the land of the dead. It means simply that when the souls cross after the person dies, the souls crossing to Mictlan, which is an ancient [Aztec] concept of the afterlife, they have to cross the river and she’s there to guide them. It was a very different understanding of her and I held on to it for years because I really loved it. It’s very, to me, mythological and actually very deeply spiritual.”
“Guadalupe – Queen of the Water, Mother of the Land of the Dead” will be on display at MOLAA for the next four months. MOLAA is located at 628 Alamitos Ave. and is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. General admission costs $15 Wednesdays through Saturdays and is free on Sundays.