Nuestra Madre
By Natachee Momaday Gray
Natachee responds to Guadalupe by combining poetry, art, and iconography to her personal relationship to Guadalupe as well as her own motherhood.
This project vision for Ojos Diferentes started out as a preliminary raw mind image of a very distinct visual element accompanied by spoken word and music. The iconic image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is so powerful and evocative on its own, that I wanted to keep the focus on her and her story. I wanted the experience to be that of an individual dream sequence or vision quest. I wanted it to be reminiscent of a first meeting. To me, her narrative is very poetic and is centered in a sacred sense of motherhood. Me, being a poet and expectant mother myself, carrying out this project felt very significant to me. Aside from her image accompanied by my words, I wanted there to be two other elements present in this experience: the Castilian roses and the star constellations. These were both historical representations and manifestations of her miracle as experienced through the apparitions. My intention with this piece is to evoke a sense of connection and humanity, and to offer my perception as a woman and mother.
Explore the history with Valerie Rangel
Each site in the Ojos Differentes project was chosen in collaboration with Santa Fe City Historian Valerie Rangel, as an augmented reality expansion and collaboration with her GIS storymaps. Learn more about the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe by reading her essay below.
About Natachee
Natachee Momaday Gray is a Santa Fe native and narradora indígena. Her work focuses on the melding of art and myth, ancestry and nostalgia, food and prayer, glamour, frivolity and the passage of time. She comes from a long lineage of storytellers and honors this tradition by bringing a charm and seduction to stories overlooked and undertold. Moving between English, Spanish, and the blood memory of the Plains people, she addresses her boundless identity, often using the alias Tatja Lucia. Find her first collection of poetry, Silver Box, at her fave bookstore Collected Works or online.