Untitled (Danny Alvarez)

From the Artist

The Virgin of Guadalupe is the equivalent of the Virgin Mary. She was an Aztec god and when the Spaniards took over the Aztec and converted them, they needed something to bind them together. So they took this goddess, the mother earth goddess Tonantzin. They actually put her in traditional Catholic garb and told the indigenous people that now she is your god, and little by little the people started accepting her. This piece has a lot of imagery that reveals what was happening there. The pattern on the chair is actually from her robe. Parts of the Mexican flag can be seen with the cactus and the snake. And above an Aztec mask is looking over. 

I use chairs a lot in my work, to represent the church and the strength of the church. I remember always seeing a big chair in the middle of the aisle when you would walk down. I use this symbol to talk about authority. In this work Tonantzin is coming out and donning the robe and stepping into the role of authority, accepting the crown and becoming a new Catholic god to the Aztecs.
_{—From Brandywine Workshop and Archives records}

My main inspiration is the border. I seek that the audience experiences that particular reality through art. Many of the images and icons from my own experience are unknown to the general public.

Another concept that I use often is the wall between Mexico and the States. The meaning of the border is something that I always grew up with, I had a childhood with aspects that delimited my experience.

The artistic experience is lived very differently in El Paso and Philadelphia. My works have been forged through the beauty and cultural richness of the border and also the very limitations of the region. But I wouldn’t trade my experience for nothing.
_{—From Brandywine Workshop and Archives records}