Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México

The , also known as the UNAM is a
public university in Mexico. It was originally founded in 1551 but its modern incarnation appeared in the year 1910. It is the largest university in Latin America and has one of the biggest campuses in the world, located in the capital of Mexico, Mexico City.
==Coat of Arms (1921 - Present)==
UNAM Coat of Arms with Inscription.svg
File:EscudoUNAMcolor.png|Color version
Escudo UNAM Color.svg
The Coat of Arms of the UNAM was designed in 1921 following a sketch made by at the time Rector of the University José Vasconcelos Calderón (1882 — 1959). Vasconcelos wanted the Coat of Arms to represent the UNAM's role not only as a research and study center for Mexico but for Latin America as a whole.
The Coat of Arms is an allegoric variant of the foundational myth of Mexico (the motive of a Mexican golden eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus devouring a rattlesnake). In this case, the bird on top of the prickly pear cactus is an adaptation of the heraldic double-headed eagle, but the bird in the Coat of Arms of the UNAM is a mixture of two Latin American native birds of prey, the Andean Condor (left head) and the golden eagle (right head). The snowy peaks that appear on the bottom of the shield along with the nopal cactus are allegorical representations of the volcanoes in Mexico such as the Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl.
In front of the double-headed bird there is a shield with the map of Latin America during the Spanish Empire (from Mexico to Argentina). The university's motto is written in Spanish surrounding the shield (in which it is replaced the letter u for the latin word v): POR MI RAZA HABLARA EL ESPIRITV (For my race the spirit shall speak), which was an expression of Vasconcelos' philosophical ideas about the Cosmic Race (La Raza Cósmica). On top of the double-headed bird there is a banderole with the name of the University written in Old Spanish, hence the use of the archaic letter for the modern word "De" (of in Spanish).
Category:Mexico
Category:1920
Category:Universities and colleges
Category:Universities and colleges in Mexico
Category:Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico