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The Guadalupe Series
Beginning in 1978 and ending in 1988, Yolanda López’s Virgen de Guadalupe series gained López a majority of recognition by depicting not only people close to her as the Virgen de Guadalupe, but also by reimagining the image in different forms. This drew in the public eye with these new albeit controversial depictions of the Virgen de Guadalupe. However, starting a controversy was not López’s intention. “American Women: Great lives from History” written by Mary K. Trigg, offers a perspective into the lives of American women spanning from colonial time up to the present day, and discusses their work in politics, civil rights, literature, education, journalism, science, business, and sports. A section on Yolanda López reads: “López's formal education and burgeoning feminism contributed to her growing interest in the politics of representation, resulting in work that progressively examined the social and cultural invisibility of women.” López wanted to depict the Virgen de Guadalupe in numerous ways, to give women, specifically those originating from Chicano culture, new forms of representation along with López’s own comments on society.

The Virgen De Guadalupe
To better understand why López wanted to depict the Virgen de Guadalupe in multiple ways one must understand what the religious figure stood for. The Virgen de Guadalupe is one of the most recognizable religious figures in the world and one of the most important figures to the people of Mexico, she is a symbol of love, faith, and identity. However, not all the symbolism could be perceived as a positive, the Virgen de Guadalupe also symbolizes motherhood, virginity, and femininity, which López felt the need to not only address but to critique in her work. “Yolanda López: Breaking Chicana stereotypes” written by Betty Laduke goes into more detail as to what López’s true goal was for her Virgen de Guadalupe series is. Laduke quotes López saying: “I feel living, breathing women also deserve the respect and love lavished on Guadalupe. . . It is a call to look at women, hardworking, enduring and mundane, as the heroines of our daily routine. . . We privately agonize and sometimes publicly speak out on the representation of us in the majority culture. But what about the portrayal of ourselves in our own culture? Who are our heroes, our role models? . . . It is dangerous for us to wait around for the dominant culture to define and validate what role models we should have.” López aims to not only praise women through her Virgen de Guadalupe but to offer young women a role model that has a familiar face.

The following will be an analysis of the original Virgen de Guadalupe in order to understand the differences when compared to Yolanda López’s Walking Guadalupe from the Virgen de Guadalupe series. When looking at the original depiction of the Virgen de Guadalupe one notices a luminous light that outlines the women, this light represents God’s heavenly light, and that the Virgen de Guadalupe is indeed blessed by his light. The crescent moon symbolizes her virginity, the angel that supports her and carries her is a symbol of her importance as the heavenly queen, in the Christian faith her turquoise garb would symbolize her eternal life, the bow around her waist is a symbol of her virginity, and the swelling of her abdomen shows that she is indeed carrying a child. However, one of the most important she represents is maternity, it could even be argued that the Virgen de Guadalupe establishes gender roles, the idea of a holy women that gives all her children love and affection, a virgin untouched by sin, a women that carries a child willing as if it were a gift from God itself

Walking Guadalupe
Yolanda López’s Walking Guadalupe, 1978. Created using mixed-media collage depicts the Virgen de Guadalupe with a shorter dress and robe wearing heels, in a walking pose, with her hands still closed for prayer, and her eyes still pointed down. At first glance there are a number of differences from Walking Guadalupe and the original depiction of the Virgen de Guadalupe. López’s interpretation is missing the luminous light, the angel and the crescent moon. Looking at what these items symbolized it could be said that this Guadalupe is not blessed, not royalty and not a virgin, it is safe to say that López has removed Guadalupe from her pedestal, but that is not necessarily a smoothing to be frowned upon. López’s Guadalupe is still carrying a child as shown by her swollen abdomen, is still a loving mother, and the most important detail is that she is working women this can be seen with the aforementioned short dress and heels, this mother is still walking around presumably still at work or even supporting her family. Despite no longer being depicted as the religious figure as she normally is, López is showing the viewer that a woman does not have to be divine and sacred in order to be looked up to, any woman has the potential to be a role model no matter what they look like.