invoked the spirit of the Aztecs, a people who engaged in wars to expand their empire and please deities like the sun and war god Huitzilopochtli with Fig 5. Viramontes, Xavier. "Boycott Grapes," 1973, Gilberto Cárdenas Latino Art Collection. sacrificial gifts (Clendinnen 54). Mendoza is, therefore, strategic in the iconography she selects. The squared-off rays emanating from Mario’s head may allude to a warrior headdress, but they also recall the rays of the sun of the UFW’s famous “ ¡Viva La Huelga!” poster (Fig. 6) on which they radiate orange against a red background with the famous UFW logo of the Aztec Eagle silhouetted in the foreground. The Aztec Eagle was a fearless bird commonly associated with warriors in the Aztec culture (64). This warrior ethos inspires the rallying cry “¡Viva La Huelga!” (which translates to "Long Live the Strike!”) of the farmworkers visible in bold black letters at the bottom of the design. The absence of the Aztec Eagle in Mendoza’s portraits is telling. Excluding the logo distinguishes the cause of undocumented immigrants in the era of COVID-19 from that of farm labor championed by the UFW, but it also allows for a more conciliatory tone. The Aztecs were not dependent merely on the spoils of war. The sun was as important to them as an agricultural society that needed it to sustain their crops. Mendoza’s design forgoes the 19
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