In the News: Alumna’s Reimagination of the Stations of the Cross is Focus of ‘Chicago Catholic’ Article

The artwork of Jacqueline Romo ’19 is the subject of an article published by Chicago Catholic newspaper on Feb. 28, 2024.

Referencing the Stations of the Cross, Romo’s “The Passion of the Monarca Migrante” uses monarch butterflies to symbolize the struggles of migrants.

The monarch butterfly symbolizes Jesus and, in depicting the crucifixion, each woodcut printed panel also tells of migrant experiences. In the first station, for example, when Jesus is condemned to death, the butterfly is pictured caught in barbed wire, similar to imprisonment.

Romo created the project for her senior art thesis at Dominican. In taking on the project, she compared the annual migration of monarch butterflies to that of immigrants in search of a better life.

“It’s a very interesting pattern similar to migrants,” Romo told Chicago Catholic. “They travel thousands of miles looking for sustenance. It could be food. It could be education. It could be political freedom. It’s just for survival, and that’s exactly what the butterfly does.”

Romo is now a graduate student at Catholic Theological Union in Hyde Park and campus minister at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Pilsen. She began her post-graduate study while a senior at Dominican through the university's accelerated master’s program with Catholic Theological Union.

To read the full story of her artwork, visit ChicagoCatholic.com.