Our Lady of Controversy: Alma López's “Irreverent Apparition” (Chicana Matters)

An anthology of vibrant responses to Alma Lopez's controversial print Our Lady, exploring critical issues of censorship, religion, and the female body. Months before Alma López's digital collage Our Lady was shown at the Museum of International Folk Art in 2001, the museum began receiving angry phone calls from community activists and Catholic leaders who demanded that the image not be displayed. Protest rallies, prayer vigils, and death threats ensued, but the provocative image of la Virgen de Guadalupe (hands on hips, clad only in roses, and exalted by a bare-breasted butterfly angel) remained on exhibition. Highlighting many of the pivotal questions that have haunted the art world since the NEA debacle of 1988, the contributors to Our Lady of Controversy present diverse perspectives, ranging from definitions of art to the artist's intention, feminism, queer theory, colonialism, and Chicano nationalism. Contributors include the exhibition curator, Tey Marianna Nunn; award-winning novelist and Chicana historian Emma Pérez; and Deena González (recognized as one of the fifty most important living women historians in America). Accompanied by a bonus DVD of Alma López's I Love Lupe video that looks at the Chicana artistic tradition of reimagining la Virgen de Guadalupe, featuring a historic conversation between Yolanda López, Ester Hernández, and Alma López, Our Lady of Controversy promises to ignite important new dialogues. Contents Images Our Lady of Controversy The Artist of Our Lady (April 2, 2001) It’s Not about the Art in the Folk, It’s about the Folks in the Art The War of the Roses Making Privates Public Art Comes for the Archbishop Queering the Sacred The Decolonial Virgin in a Colonial Site It’s Not about the Virgins in My Life, It’s about the Life in My Virgins Do U Think I’m a Nasty Girl? Devil in a Rose Bikini It’s Not about the Santa in My Fe, but the Santa Fe in My Santa Appendix Contributors Index