Monday/Tuesday
Posted on August 4, 2009
Cross country trips are exhausting. I left Phoenix, Arizona on Sunday at about noon and arrived in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 48 hours later. I went from point A to point B on Sunday, referring to the above map. Then I drove from Point B to Point C on Monday/Tuesday. Today I am completely exhausted and on the trip I was a bit bored out of my mind . . . so I kept myself busy I bought an awful book on tape from a Loves Trucker stop in Baton Rouge. While there was a lot of violence, but plot wise it was pretty simple. I also calculated over and over again how much time I had left to get to point A,B,C, whatever. And I counted things . . . That was the most fun, here is my list!
1 – One of each: racoon, possum, and armadillo roadkill (only special because we don’t have them in AZ!)
2 – Number of times I was cut off by Arizona drivers outside of Arizona . . . jerks . . .
3 – Number of times I locked my doors while driving because I thought of those horror movies where the guys hide in the backseat . . .
4 – Number of I called my sister on the road 🙂
5 – The number of grasshoppers I crushed in Texas to get to the motel . . . so . . . gross . . .
6 – Number of Pilot truck stops I stopped at to use the restroom.
7 – Number of times my car made that noise when you run onto the shoulder because I was trying to take video of the trip and got distracted.
8 – Number of times I passed Cracker Barrels . . . . Oh Ashley
9 – Number of pictures of fetuses (plural?) on Prolife billboards in Florida and Mississippi, I only put this because they are the size of my car . . . thought it was weird.
10 – Number of times I heard Pitbulls Calle Ocho song . . . . you know you want me . . . .
I’ll be adding the random clips I took that nearly ran me off the road later . . . for now I want to sleep before my first day of work!!!
Virgen de Guadalupe project
Posted on June 26, 2009
Pilgrims from Chalma, a town near Mexico City, march back with their Virgin de Guadalupe to place her back in their town’s church.
So a while back I started a project on the Virgen de Guadalupe . . . she is an apparition of the Virgin Mary that appeared on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico City shortly after the Spanish ‘conquest’ of Mexico. Her brown skin and eyes and her duality (she appeared on the same hill where Tenotzin was worshiped) has given her an interesting duality and as Mexicans have spread around the world so has she.
Im adding some photos that I’ve gathered while working on this project below with descriptions:
Here she appears on a $5 phone card in Austin, Texas
A girl carries a Virgen de Guadalupe purse, representing her heritage rather than faith, in Austin, Texas.
A man wears a cut off t-shirt with her image in a bar in Austin, Texas.
A Virgen de Guadalupe statue, used for tourist photos at the Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City, Mexico, is put in storage during swine flu in April 2009.
A pilgrim from Chalma, outsdie of Mexico City, shows off his hat, with an airbrushed Virgin of Guadalupe on it on his way home.
A printer in El Centro has place a Virgen de Guadalupe alongside photos of naked women that he collects.
A young girl sells images of the Virgin of Guadalupe at the Insurgentes metro station in Mexico City.
The virgen sits outside a parking lot in Tlalpan, Mexico City.
The Virgen of Guadalupe decorates a trendy store in Condesa, Mexico City.
El Bulico (the rooster as he is known in town) shows off his bike decorated with decals of the Virgen of Guadalupe and anything else he's found while working in the states from the past thirty years.
The sweatshirt featuring the Virgen of Guadalupe is from a clothing line based in Japan where a lowrider culture and appreciation for Chicano art has thrived for the past twenty years.
To the right of the traditional Virgin Mary image is an image of the Virgen of Guadalupe in Miami, Arizona.
The Virgen of Guadalupe decorates a toolbox at a production studio in Monterrey, Mexico.
A Virgen de Guadalupe in a bakery in Morelia, Mexico has money and a small toy gun at her feet.
The Virgen of Guadalupe chalk painted onto a wall in a wash in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.
A man waiting for deported family displays a Virgen de Guadalupe prayer card, wrinkled from being inside of his wallet, at the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Nogales, Sonora
A diabetic patient is seen in the mirror next to her decorated Virgen of Guadalupe before leaving for dialysis in Phoenix, Ariz.
Her image decorates blankets on sale for tourists in Tijuana, Mexico.
A virgin decorates a store in Tijuana, Mexico.
A virgin in a bottle sits for sale outside a church in Tijuana, Mexico.
A Virgen of Guadalupe blanket sits in the back of a dollar store owned by a Chinese family in Washington D.C.
A Virgen of Guadalupe painting sits for sale inside a gallery in Washington D.C.
Vladimir Cuevas, a San Fransisco artist sits in his studio with over fifteen paintings of her image. Those pictured with him will be placed in a church built for the Virgen de Guadalupe in Manila, Philippines
A Virgen de Guadalupe made in Vietnam hangs in the home of Anita Madrigal, who collects her image, in Woodland, California.
My friend Natalia shared this picture form when she was a teenager and snorkeling in Acapulco, Mexico on a family vacation.
This isn’t all of the content but it’s a start and a lame reason as to why I haven’t been posting anywhere near as regularly. Since reporting is wrapping up this weekend for me, one interview in L.A. and another in Gila Bend, Ariz. I’m excited to start wrapping up this project and preparing for Florida, only five weeks away.
Deanna Dent 