On Wednesday, Nov. 9, the Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies (LALACS) Program is presenting featured guest speaker Alma López, a digital artist, activist and director.

The event will begin at 7:00 p.m. with a short lecture by López, followed by the screening of her documentary, a question and answer session and a reception.

Mexican-born and based out of Los Angeles, López is best known for the controversy surrounding her reconceptualization of Our Lady of Guadalupe. As a feminist, lesbian and Chicana, she reinterprets traditional Mexican iconography in ways that question traditional roles of minorities in society and women in particular.

The original piece, which drew the attention of the Catholic Church and a plethora of controversy reinterpreted and sexualized the traditional Catholic symbol of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In 2001, the digital print, displayed in an exhibition in New Mexico, garnered the attention of the Catholic Church, who demanded censorship and the removal of the print.

As an artist, she mainly works with photos, collage and painting.

“Her work talks a lot about the roles of the mother, the daughter, the immigrant, the Chicana and other oppressed people in society. Her work is about standing proud as a woman and asserting female sexuality. She asks how the lesbian and the Chicana can have an active role and voice in culture,” Angelique Dwyer, director of the LALACS program, said.

Dwyer, who has studied López’s work and its impact for about ten years and originally wrote about her for her doctoral dissertation, recently published an article concerning López’s work, called “Performing Chicana in Cyberspace: www.almaLópez.com.”

“I initially contacted Alma López because I was publishing the article about her and wanted her to read it. It occurred to me to invite her to campus and she accepted the invitation. I am very interested in her strong presence online and the way that one piece of art is capable of spurring ten years of controversy,” Dwyer said.

López will lecture on her new book, Our Lady of Controversy, in which she brings together the work and essays of prominent feminist scholars to comment on López’s work and activism.

The book is co-edited by her spouse, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, who is a leading Chicano scholar. The book comes with a DVD of the forty-five minute long documentary that will be screened during the event. The documentary, called I LOVE Lupe, is a conversation between Chicana artists Yolanda López, Ester Hernandez and Alma López as they discuss what their works means and why they made certain pieces.

Because of the controversial nature of López and her work, Dwyer is slightly apprehensive about the reactions from faculty and students.

“I am worried mostly about people misinterpreting or perceiving López and her work as anti-Catholic, which is not how it is meant to be. López is Catholic. Her work goes beyond whether or not you are Catholic. It is about what it is to be a woman and a Chicana,” Dwyer said.

“We even experienced controversy over the graphic presented on the posters advertising the event. Much discussion over the appropriateness of Lopez’s Our Lady as displayed on the poster occurred and it was eventually decided to crop the photo,” she said.

Dwyer also cited López’s experience in reacting to controversy and censorship; she will be comfortable fielding questions of any sort.

The event is also sponsored, in part, by the departments of Art, Theater and Dance, the Diversity Center, the Bookmark and the Modern Languages, Literature and Cultures (MLLC).

Copies of Our Lady of Controversy will be available in the Bookmark to be signed by López after the reception. The reception will feature a candy bar provided by the Diversity Center with help from Organization for Latin, American and Spanish Cultures (OLAS).

“There will be a fun mix of Mexican candies for everyone to try. We are getting a little bit of everything—sweet, salty and even spicy. The candy bar will be set up the entire time for people to enjoy. We are definitely hoping to see a lot of students there, otherwise there will be some leftovers in the Diversity Center the next day,” Laura Schilling, administrator of the Diversity Center, said.

López will be present at Gustavus for two days. During this time, she will be available for conversation and questions in the Diversity Center on Wednesday, Nov. 9 from 11:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. and again on Thursday, Nov 10 from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.

“The time that López will be spending here will be very informal. If you had any questions you did not have a chance to ask from the night before, this will be a great time to do so. We are very excited to have her in here to spend time with us,” Schilling said.

The event will be held in the Wallenberg auditorium located in the Nobel Hall of Science and is scheduled to last until 9:00 p.m. All students and faculty are welcome to come.

“We are extremely lucky to have her come, so I am hoping that a lot of students find themselves able to attend. She is extremely engaging and cutting-edge. She is an activist and someone that both males and females could look up to,” Dwyer said.