Mother's Sacrifice

Toni Anguiano

The work I have made for this exhibition was created to highlight the way I view the biblical story about Mother Mary and her uncertain journey into motherhood after her immaculate conception was announced to her by the angel Gabriel. This story was told to me when I was approximately eight-years old and to be quite honest, it confused me. Being a little girl raised within a religion, which did not seem to favor women, was a confusing and at times, an upsetting, experience. I no longer follow the Catholic path as I had discovered and embraced Paganism when I was thirteen, however the story of Mary always stuck with me.

After the story was told to me, I always questioned, if Jesus became God after he died, why didn’t his mother become a Goddess after all of her sacrifice? How come after all of her suffering was she only canonized to be a Saint, and not given a place next to God in the religion? Mother Mary is thought very highly of in Catholicism and Christianity, but I never understood why she was not considered equal to God after she gave birth to his son. Her body was used to bring Jesus Christ into this world during a time in a country where she could be stoned to death for being an unwed mother, raised him into manhood, and stood helpless in the crowd as she watched her son die an agonizing death to save humanity. For all of her sacrifice, grief and unconditional love, why couldn’t she be a God herself? She was torn away from her child in a devastating way and for this, I believe she deserves to be more than simply a saint.

This is a feminist piece that questions and challenges the deep-seated misogyny in Catholicism and Christianity. Women are not simply vessels for men to control; they are also not only good for bearing and raising children. The glitched images are a representation of the broken, dysfunctional viewpoint about the lack of equality between men and women in monotheistic religion through my own opinions and experience. Women are powerful. Women are the beginning of life. Women can be Gods. Men and women can stand together on equal ground. Our belief systems should represent equal power instead of lowering one sex to be inferior to the other. Although I do not follow the Catholic path any longer, I still worry about the toxic messages taught to young people within these belief systems related to genders and their roles.

Mother's Sacrifice (New Art City): _{Link to New Art City}

Portfolio: _{https://tanguiano92.github.io/}

Email: _{toni.anguiano@sjsu.edu}