Monday, April 17, 2017

For me this piece of street art in Chicano Park intrigued me the most at my visit to the site. To me almost all street art revolves around problem so regarding society and politics ranging from discrimination, to corrupt, to ecology, etc.. This particular piece gives an essence of the national identity of Mexican-Americans. The piece itself appears to picture of the Aztec goddess, "Coatlicue, Diosa de la Tierra - Earth Goddess" holding the sun on one hand and the earth on the other. The Earth on the god's left hand pictures the Americas emphasizing the Native American culture of Mexican Heritage. The sun on the other hand symbolizes the importance it had on the Mexica Culture. How the goddess stands also prompts the idea that not only was the Aztec culture filled a palette of colors and the differences they had from European Culture, but also the evocation of power these gods had possessed over their people, as the goddess stands in  totem-like design which was very common in Native American art.

Coatlicue also appears as if she was the main subject of hierarchical scale as she herself is placed at the top, having lesser gods who revere this mother goddess, as she a patron goddess to motherhood and to women who die in childbirth. To me it embraces he importance that mothers have in our society as they are the ones who sacrifice everything possibly their lives in order for their child to live a better life then they had.

Coatlicue connects well with the revered Virgin of Guadalupe, an iconic symbol for the great influence Catholicism has had on Mexican Society and thus creating a syncretic blend between Native and European culture. The variety of colors used in the portrait of the Virgin Mary encapsulates the adoption of Aztec art and its wide range of colors. The Virgin herself represents not only the virtue of motherhood, but also the beauty and greatness of innocence as she herself was a pious and sinless girl as so the Bible claims. All in all the overall theme of these two pieces is motherhood and its importance in every society in both halves of the globe.