This portfolio reflects my struggles when having to project the common view of what a woman is.  I am bothered
by the stereotypes that are attributed to issues of the past, as I call them.  The value placed in the female body
when it comes to the virginity, chastity, and de-flower.  I come from a family of Mexican descend and although I
never had an adult explain to me in detail what the expectations were as a young adult.  I understood that I was
to get marry a virgin.  But no one talked to me and that is how I grew, virgin and ignorant.

Believing that in my future I would have to commit to an “I Do.”  The white dress and the wedding night where I
would give away all that I had saved.  For that oh so fortunate men!  In the piece, V 02 and V 03, I show the
value of the hymen turned into the wedding veil coming out of her own vagina.  All she is worth is that
transparent veil between her legs.  It better be there and it better be intact.

Domesticity continues to be expected of women; whether she has an outside job or not.  In the piece the
La Mujer Tiene Que Limpiar La Casa/Women Must Clean the House, I attached old used rags to a dress, to illustrate
that the house chores are expected to be done by the homemaker.  In, La Mujer Tiene Que Tener Los
Hijos/Women Must Give Birth to Children, I address the issue of having the power to decide how many children
each one wants to have.  This piece came to life to answer my personal issues to the never ending question of
the many people in my family and even strangers, “When are you going to have another child?”  So I can look like
that, is my visual answer!  Because sometimes words are not enough to explain everything I want to say.  These
dresses are here to show my feelings when it comes to those archaic ideas of womanhood.

The pieces in this portfolio represent my feelings of being a woman.  I believe that many women can relate to my
struggles.  I address issues that have marked me and my decisions in life.  These ideas of the past continue to
be pass on to new generations.  It bothers me to know that we have not progress a whole lot.  That is the
reason why I continue to create work that shows my discontent with my own culture.
Cristina  Velázquez