Reclaiming Aztlán: The Visual Rhetoric of Pre- Columbian Imagery in Chicano Murals

As the Chicano movement took shape in the 1960s, Chicano artists quickly began to articulate the attitudes and goals of the movement in the form of murals that decorated businesses, freeway underpasses, and low-income housing developments. It did not take long for a distinct aesthetic to emerge. Many of the same visual symbols repeatedly appear in these murals, especially those produced during the first two decades of the movement. These included images of historical Mexican or Chicano figures such as Cesar Chavez, Pancho Villa, and Dolores Huerta, cultural icons like the Virgin of Guadalupe, and emblems of political consciousness like the flag of the United Farm Workers. But one of the most important visual themes that emerged was the use of pre-Columbian imagery, which could include images of Aztec or Mayan warriors, gods like Coatlicue or Quetzacoatl, the Aztec calendar stone, depictions of ancient Mesoamerican pyramid architecture, or the Olmec head sculptures found at San Lorenzo and La Venta. These images are nearly ubiquitous in Chicano murals, and serve many symbolic purposes. At the most basic level, visual references to the Pre-Columbian period convey a message of cultural pride, paying homage to the ancient civilizations from which modern Mexicans and Chicanos descended and differentiating Chicano culture from dominan