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"La Tierra Nueva en Aztlán"

National Museum of American History

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Object Details

artist
Moya, Manuel
Description
The evolving civil rights movement of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s revolutionized the consciousness of young people across the United States. As in African American communities, a new sense of mobilization spread among Mexican Americans. Many adopted a more political identity—chicano and chicana—and explored their history, which was omitted from school textbooks. The Chicano movement sought to remedy the injustices experienced by many Mexican Americans, from substandard education and housing to working conditions. Many symbols and ideas of the Chicano movement were taken from the pre-Hispanic past, especially Aztec history. Aztlán, the original homeland in the Aztec migration stories, has an important place in Chicano mythology. As a symbolic reclamation of their place in American history, Chicanos locate Aztlán in the Southwest United States, in the area conquered during the Mexican-American War. The image shown here, by Manuel Moya, is an ink drawing done on a handkerchief known as a paño. Paños are graphic art works drawn on handkerchiefs by Chicano prisoners in California, Texas, and the Southwest. Titled, La Tierra Nueva en Aztlán, or The New Land in Aztlán, combines the images of the Aztec past with a Pancho Villa-like figure from the Mexican Revolution.
Description (Spanish)
El movimiento por los derechos civiles que se desarrolló entre las décadas de 1950, 1960 y 1970, revolucionó las conciencias de los jóvenes a los largo de los Estados Unidos. Al igual que en las comunidades afroamericanas, también se difundió entre los mexicoamericanos un nuevo sentido de movilización. Muchos adoptaron una identidad de carácter más político—chicano y chicana—y empezaron a explorar su historia, la cual había quedado omitida de los libros de texto escolares. El movimiento chicano buscó remediar las injusticias experimentadas por muchos mexicoamericanos, tales como condiciones educativas, de vivienda y de trabajo inferiores al estándar. Muchos símbolos e ideas del movimiento chicano se extrajeron del pasado prehispánico, especialmente de la historia azteca. Aztlán, la patria original aludida en las historias migratorias de los aztecas, ocupa un lugar de relieve en la mitología chicana. Como reclamo simbólico de su lugar en la historia americana, los chicanos ubican a Aztlán en el sudoeste de los Estados Unidos, en el área conquistada durante la guerra mexicoamericana. La imagen que se observa aquí, del artista Manuel Moya, es un dibujo en tinta hecho sobre un pañuelo o paño. Los paños son obras de arte gráfico diseñadas sobre pañuelos por los prisioneros chicanos en California, Texas y la región sudoeste. Titulado La Tierra Nueva en Aztlán, combina las imágenes del pasado azteca con una figura estilo Pancho Villa de la Revolución Mexicana.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Rudy Padilla
1986
ID Number
1991.0431.01
catalog number
1991.0431.01
accession number
1991.0431
Object Name
handkerchief
Physical Description
cotton (overall material)
ink (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 40.5 cm x 40 cm; 15 15/16 in x 15 3/4 in
average spatial: 18 in x 15 in; 45.72 cm x 38.1 cm
Place Made
United States: New Mexico, Albuquerque
See more items in
Home and Community Life: Ethnic
Cultures & Communities
Mexican America
Art
National Museum of American History
subject
Prisons
Latino
Civil Rights Movement
Native Americans
La Tierra Nueva en Aztlan
Record ID
nmah_1121879
Metadata Usage (text)
CC0
GUID (Link to Original Record)
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ab-a214-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

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La Tierra Nueva en Aztlán
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