User:Jaylineg/sandbox

¿A Donde Vas, Chicana?
While attending the University of California, San Diego, Yolanda Lopez created ¿A Donde Vas, Chicana?, English for “Where are you going, Chicana?”, Getting through College series as part of her MFA exhibition in 1977. The four by five feet canvas painted with acrylic and oil portrays a toned Lopez as the runner jogging intensely across a college campus in a tank top and shorts with her hair pulled back. She based this painting on her experience of running to get in shape and have control over her body. In the journal article “Yolanda Lopez: Breaking Chicana Stereotypes”, Betty LaDuke interviews Lopez and she informs us that the series was presented from the perspective of "a woman calling on her body in an assertive and physically disciplined manner as a power ally '' . She also comments on the runner’s noteworthiness saying, "It is female. It is Chicana. It is a self-portrait. The metaphor extends from the symbolic fortitude of women to the literal image of a Chicana's struggle in a formidable institution." Lopez then analyzes a runner’s “short-lived speed with women's psychological and physical sustaining power of endurance." She ends the interview with a strong and clear message, "Endurance is one of our greatest survival tools."