Unpublished Letter About
an Artist's Parody of Our Lady of Guadalupe, sent to the San Jose Mercury News, April 10, 2002

Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 16:59:48 -0700 (PDT)
From: Roseanne Sullivan
Subject: Today's 1,2,3 in section E
To: [email protected]

Your printing of the photograph of Raquel Salinas in Alma Lopez's "Our Lady" is offensive to Catholics. You may not realize its implications but Our Lady refers to the Mother of God. The elements of Salinas' photograph copy and mock the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that was miraculously imprinted on the cloak (tilma) of a poor Indian Juan Diego when Our Lady appeared to him as an Indian woman during the time of Spanish rule.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of the Americas. Many Hispanics are Catholic and they and other Catholics, including the Pope, have a great devotion to her. The tilma is still preserved (also miraculously) in a cathedral in Mexico City. The tilma has the coloring and aureola that Lopez used in her parody, which flaunts a scantily clad woman with a provocative expression instead of Our Lady. This is crude and juvenile.

We Catholics think of the Virgin Mary as the Mother of the Church.

Would you show a parody like that of your mother?

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Last Updated: December 19, 2003