Explaining the stories in “La Memoria de la Tierra: UCLA” mural

On April 1, 2022, artist and former UCLA professor Judy Baca unveiled “La Memoria de la Tierra: UCLA,” a nearly 80-foot mural depicting the past, present and future of UCLA. The mural was made possible by a partnership between the UCLA Centennial Committee; Associated Students UCLA (ASUCLA) and the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC). Located on the north side of Ackerman Union as part of the Wescom Student Terrace, the mural is filled with intricate details, each representing a story in UCLA’s past or a hint at the university’s future.

Keep reading to learn more about the people and events depicted in “La Memoria de la Tierra: UCLA”.

At the center of the mural is a figure larger than all the other humans in the painting: Toypurina, a Gabrielino/Tongva medicine woman who played a key role in a native uprising against the Spanish missionaries in the late 1700s. Baca has also previously painted a mural featuring Toypurina in East Los Angeles.

Behind Toypurina, students hold signs protesting the Vietnam War. According to a UCLA Alumni newsletter, protests began at UCLA in 1967 as students objected to Dow Chemicals, the company that produced a chemical weapon called napalm, recruiting graduates on campus. As the war stretched on, students continued to stage anti-war protests and sit-ins, with attendance at any one event reaching up to 1,500.

On the other side of Toypurina, far off in the distance, there is a faint silhouette of a Japanese internment camp from World War II. Another UCLA Alumni newsletter describes how Executive Order No. 9066, which forced Japanese Americans into internment camps, impacted UCLA; 175 students were forced to leave the university, including Akio Hirashiki Yamazaki, president of Chi Alpha Delta, the country’s oldest Asian American sorority. She was only a few credits short of graduation.

To learn more about “La Memoria de la Tierra: UCLA” and the stories it contains, visit the ASUCLA arts around the union page, linked through the button below.