Reaching For Coatlicue / Intentando Alcanzar A Coatlicue

In this painting Carrillo has painted a man floating in air reaching out to an ethereal female figure seemingly made of light, with a serpent winding across her shoulders. This image is Carrillo’s depiction of Coatlicue or “Snakes her skirt” the ancient Azteca-Mexica Earth mother. Coatlicue is a common image for Chicano artists as she symbolizes the connection that the Chicano people have to their ancestral roots in Mexico, and the thriving and advanced civilization that was subjugated through colonialism. Carrillo paints the male figure as faceless, an insert for the viewer or even himself as we reach for our ancestral roots through a postcolonial haze.

Photo by Emily Hart Roth

EC.0137