About our New Departmental Logo
| Our new logo integrates both Movimiento and Chicana feminist symbols to indicate the balance of activism and scholarship that we offer in our Chicana/o Studies curriculum at UCLA. The image in the background is the Coyolxauhqui stone commemorating the Aztec Warrior Goddess of the Moon that was discovered under the Templo Mayor in Mexico City in 1978. Chicana feminists have embraced Coyolxauhqui as a symbol of female empowerment within a patriarchal power structure, and we use it here to recognize the struggle of women scholars in the academy and the ways in which Chicanas have redefined the field of Chicana/o Studies. She also represents the importance of gender and sexuality in our courses and research. Superimposed on the image of Coyolxauhqui is a blank book suspended over the United Farmworker eagle symbolizing a mind waiting to be filled with knowledge and grounded in the legacy of César Chávez . The icon of the eagle itself combines the images of the Native American thunderbird‹symbol of rain and life and the Aztec pyramids, to signify Chicanas¹/os¹ connection to the landbase of the Mexican north, now the American Southwest. To remember our indigenous history is to re-member Coyolxauhqui, the warrior goddess who lights our way in the dark. |
