Using colored pencils alone, this artwork depicts a Oaxacan woman in a desert-like landscape with flowers native to Oaxaca. I used the iconography of La Virgen de Guadalupe, a Catholic figure represeting the Virgen Mary in Catholic Mexican communties, to resemble the indigenous woman. Her posing and symbolism are both similar but also opposite to embody the conflicting history of Mexico’s indigenity. I wanted to say with this drawing how we must see Indigenous people as higher beings like La Virgen because they had a hand in our creation and heritage; being able to live amongst everyone despite the many problems and obstacles we have put them through. They remain strong and resilient, through assimilation and conversion, they continue to remind us of our practices and should be honored as such. I wanted to create an irony of having an indigenous woman posing as a Catholic icon, but I learned through this process that the irony is that we don’t see them to be similar enough.

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