Photographer pays homage to Our Lady of Guadalupe and reclaims her connection with the divine

It’s not uncommon to see an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on murals, candles, statues and even clothing. She’s a significant religious figure who signifies hope and protection for countless Latinos in the U.S. and abroad. For photographer Amanda Lopez, her image goes beyond religion, serving as a powerful emblem of home.

Catholics believe that, in 1531, the Virgin Mary appeared before Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, an Indigenous farmer at the Hill of Tepeyac in a suburb of Mexico City. According to the story, she left on his cloak an image of a brown-skinned Virgen de Guadalupe, which still hangs at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

This would also be where Lopez began her own years-long journey documenting her image for Guadalupe, a project that pays homage to the “divine feminine energy, sacredness, and healing that Guadalupe’s imagery can encapsulate for people of all genders and backgrounds.” In it, Lopez reimagines Guadalupe in a contemporary context.

During a college trip to Mexico City, Lopez visited the basilica and was moved by the sacredness of the moment. She photographed a floral “set” on the grounds and it became an image that stayed with her for years to come. However, like many Mexican Americans, this wasn’t exactly her first encounter with the Patroness of Mexico.

Growing up as a first- and second-generation Mexican American in California’s capital, Guadalupe was a deeply ingrained part of her daily life. She attended a church named Our Lady of Guadalupe up to her teenage years and was surrounded by Guadalupe’s image in her childhood home. Her family’s Catholic values initially shaped her own, though she began to question them as this project took shape.

“The question that I kept asking myself when I was working on this project was, ‘What does it mean to be a good woman — a Mexican woman, a former Catholic woman, a good woman — in my grandmother’s eyes?’ ” Lopez said. “You have to be humble, respectful and quiet. You go along with the status quo. And then I was really uncomfortable with that idea.”

Lopez then began to deconstruct that line of thinking and began to visualize how she could portray these conflicting thoughts photographically. “And that’s when I started to reimagine what Guadalupe might look like and understand that, to be a ‘good woman,’ you don’t have to be any of those things.”

Lopez deliberately excluded adjectives commonly used to describe Guadalupe such as “Lady,” “Virgen” or “Madre” when naming the series.

“I wanted to move beyond traditional notions about womanhood and let viewers create their own meanings. I went through my own unlearning by questioning those same terms and, in that process, was able to reconnect with her.”

For Lopez, Guadalupe signifies all that is good and loving. And her definition of what “good” meant transcended a religious context as she delved deeper in her relationship with her.

“She’s all encompassing — what is nurturing and what is caring. For me, that’s not an exclusively religious thing. She’s evolved to this symbol that actually reminds me so much of my own grandma.”

Lopez grew up seeing her grandma Isabel — also known as Nana — on a daily basis. Guadalupe was a religious presence who guided Isabel through a life filled with many highs and some heavy lows. And though Lopez has a different relationship with the patron saint than her Nana ever did, she wanted to honor everyone’s individual journey with Guadalupe.

“I know so many people who have this connection to her [Guadalupe] that are not Mexican, that are not straight, that are not women and that are not religious … And so when I was making these photos, I wanted to have the opportunity to chat with folks and ask ‘What is it about her image that you resonate with?’ “

For some, she’s a religious icon. For others, a cultural figure. Many are also simply captivated by the beauty of her art. For Amanda, she represents the connective thread that unites us.

In 2021, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History added 15 of these photographs to their Photographic History Collection. Now, they are being exhibited in Sacramento, Calif., the city where Lopez first connected with Guadalupe.

“It’s a little bittersweet because my grandma won’t be there,” she said. Isabel died in 2020 at the age of 91 and was buried with her favorite Virgen de Guadalupe necklace. “But she’ll be there in spirit.”

The exhibition will be on view at the Timeless Thrills Art Gallery through Jan. 4, 2025.