The state of San Diego deploys replacement images for the mascot – NBC 7 San Diego

After years of controversy on its representation of the Aztec warrior, the San Diego State University unveiled a trio of new images on Thursday that school leaders hope to be a better representation of culture behind the nickname of the school.

SDSU deleted the use of the resemblance of the native warrior as a mascot in 2018, but maintained the aztec name of his student and college body teams. The decision to create a new iconography for the school brand is part of the University plan to honor the history of Aztecs while maintaining the meaning of the community that has developed around the epithet, said SDSU.

The leaders hope that the three “glyphs”, as they call them, will link school to Aztec culture while representing the school for the years to come.

“Glyphs are symbols that are anchored,” said Dr. Ramona Pérez. The professor of anthropology and president of the Aztec culture and education committee played a key role in the process to create the new iconography.

“The intention behind them was for us to be able to reach the past until our 500,000 old and have something for them, representing what the Aztec nickname has meant for them over time, as well as in the future,” said Pérez.

The committee worked with Mexican anthropologists and artists to understand the important symbolism of Aztec imagery, in particular the Aztec sunscreen. The committee then selected three images of the more than 200 represented on the sun stone to represent the student population – a jaguar to represent health, a symbol of wind representing education and a house to represent the community, said SDSU.

The announcement clearly shows that there is no return to the old representations of Monty Montezuma or Aztec Warrior, which were at the heart of the controversy between the traditionalists and those who say that it is no longer culturally acceptable to have human beings as mascots.

“It is who we are, it is our DNA and now we have the opportunity to show this in a new way,” said sports director JD Wicker. “I realize that it is new, sometimes it takes a little more time for people to kiss what is new, but you embrace the Aztecs and that still allows us to lean more.

“We are the Aztecs and we are going to be the Aztecs.”

Wicker said the school had already started to deploy images to its sports teams and in Aztec stores for use on jerseys, training equipment and fans’ clothes.