The image shows up everywhere — on murals in East LA, on the arms of people who wanted something permanent to say about who they were, on T-shirts and jewelry and the visual vocabulary of Chicano and Mexican identity. Coatlicue. Xochiquetzal. Tlazolteotl. Coyolxauhqui. They are not decoration. They are the old names for the forces that moved the world before the Spanish arrived and tried to replace them all with a single name. Understanding the goddesses of the Aztec (Mexica) pantheon is to understand something about the cosmology that shaped a civilization — and that didn't disappear when the colonizers arrived.
Who are the Aztec goddesses?
The Mexica (Aztec) pantheon included numerous goddesses who governed different aspects of life, nature, and the cosmos. Coatlicue ("Serpent Skirt") was the earth goddess and mother of Huitzilopochtli, the sun god; she is depicted with a skirt of serpents and a necklace of hearts and skulls, embodying both creation and destruction. Xochiquetzal ("Flower Quetzal") was the goddess of beauty, love, and the arts — patroness of artists, weavers, and artisans. Coyolxauhqui ("She Who Is Adorned With Bells") was the moon goddess and sister of Huitzilopochtli, whose myth involves cosmic sibling conflict that explains the cycle of day and night. According to the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, which houses the most extensive collection of Mexica artifacts in the world, these figures were central to Mexica religious life and continue to influence Mexican cultural identity.
The goddesses in Chicano identity
For Chicano and Mexican-American communities, Aztec imagery — including the goddesses — became central to the visual identity of the Chicano Movement. Muralists in East LA and the Mission District of San Francisco used these figures to assert Indigenous roots and challenge the narrative that Mexican-Americans were culturally blank. The image of Coatlicue, in particular, became a powerful symbol: she is not a gentle goddess, but she is honest about the coexistence of creation and destruction, life and death, that defines the natural world.
Reclaiming the iconography
When someone chooses to wear or display imagery of the Aztec goddesses today, they're participating in a long tradition of reclamation — insisting that the civilization and its cosmology are still present, still meaningful, still part of who they are. Smile Mas designs for that community: the one that carries its history visibly and with intention.
Keep reading:
Chicano Style: The History Behind the Aesthetic
La Raza: What the Term Means and Why It Still Matters
Oaxaca: Where Culture Is Made and Remembered
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