A mural painted by Judith F. Baca for the Topping Student Center, USC. Commissioned by the University and dedicated on 12/5/1996, it depicts a landscape taken from a photograph of the northern part of Los Angeles, with a river which changes to a freeway, which changes back to a river. The central image of the mural is a kiva (a ceremonial structure) and the earth goddess, painted in three poses: asleep, awakening, and militant. Included among the figures are several USC students who were involved in the creation of the mural, as well as David Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera. For more detailed analysis of the iconography of the mural, please refer to the bibliography at the bottom of this page.

• Image of the mural
• Aztec figure
• Bulldozer
• Detail of demonstration streaming from the Goddess' hand
• Another detail of demonstration
• Gabrielino indians
• Goddess asleep
• Goddess awake and enraged
• Ice-cream (helados) man
• Chavez ravine houses
• Kiva
• Madonna
• Silver Dollar

Other works in the Norman Topping Center

Bibliography:

• Text from a brochure produced by the Latina/o Student Assembly and Murals Education Project (2003?)
• "An Iconographic Roadmap to the Mural", USC Chronicle, 1/13/97
• "Formal Dedication for 'The Memory of Our Land' at Topping Student Center Draws Crowds", USC Chronicle, 1/13/97.
• "Latino Pride Mural Dedicated." Daily Trojan, December 6, 1996.
• "Earth Memory." USC Chronicle, 9/17/96
• "Arts committee approves mural." Daily Trojan, January 25, 1996, Arts Section.
• "Latina artist to paint Topping Center mural on Chicano themes." Daily Trojan, September 4, 1995.

To: Public Art at USC

3/2005

Photographs taken by Ruth Wallach, USC Libraries, in 1996, 2002.