My final project, The Virgin of Del Rio, was inspired by the works of Alma Lopez and well as Yolanda Lopez in which they manipulate the Catholic religious figure, The Virgin of Guadalupe, into their own version often featuring other Latina women that they look up to or themselves in a more sexualized version than the traditional iconography. In the same fashion, I created a collage in which Vanessa  Del Rio, a hyper-sexualized figure by others and a proud ‘slut’, juxtaposed as the traditional and somewhat sexually repressive Virgin of Guadalupe. I used a photograph of Del Rio in which she exposes most of her body in a leotard and is sexual in nature yet also masculine. The musculature she displays in the photo also contrasts highly with that is often thought of a the ideal and sexual figure of a Latina women. 

–Alexis May

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