Alfred Quiroz scandalized the Latino art movement in the early '90s when he painted the sacred Virgen de Guadalupe alongside a woman's vagina. To many, the comparison seemed crass and offensive, but to Quiroz it was a valid statement about the figure's implications in history and modern society. While the Virgin remains the most iconic image of Catholic Mexico, revered and worshiped by the masses, to Quiroz it symbolizes the roots of colonialism.

"All of the sudden, they say, oh this native guy saw the Virgen," Quiroz said about the apparition of the Virgen first appearing to Juan Diego in the 1400s. "But the Virgen de Guadalupe just happened to be the same exact style of the paintings in Spain of that period. They say it's magic paint and it's a miracle that it burned on this guy. People get upset. 'How dare you call that a painting.' Well it is. It is a painting with paint. It's based on a Renaissance image."

Quiroz explains that the Virgen was created to convert the Aztecs into Catholicism, the religion of the Spanish conquistadors that conquered them. The Aztecs worshiped many gods at the time, but were eventually converted to monotheism by the manifestation of the Virgin Mary as a darker woman.

"It wasn't a miracle, it was a ploy," Quiroz said. "How do we convert these people? Oh, we'll just say it's a miracle. They made the face darker because they wanted to show the indigenous people that she was dark. Therefore, of the darker people."

While Quiroz respects the image, he says it has been commoditized and trivialized. Not only is it a religious symbol, but it is on everything from bumper stickers and candles to children's puzzles. When an image appears so much in the popular consciousness, it loses part of its sacred mystique.

"In Mexico, the Virgen de Guadalupe is the number one saint," Quiroz said. "It's also the number one kitsch element. Phone cards with the Virgen, puzzles, Virgen de Guadalupe key chains, Guadalupe this, Guadalupe that. So they get very upset if you depict it in a different way."

Quiroz recalls an angry reaction to his "Goddess" painting, in which a person posted a hostile comment on an online message board. This is a milder version of what has happened in the past to artists who depict the Virgen in less traditional terms.

"An artist in the seventies did a painting of the Virgen with the face of Marilyn Monroe. They almost killed him. People went nuts, they wanted to kill the artist."

Although Quiroz has dedicated his time lately to more political matters, such as a presidential series of paintings, he is still wrestling with the idea of the Virgen as a commodity. He is in the midst of creating a tortilla machine that will burn religious faces onto tortillas. Quiroz also teaches full time at the University of Arizona.