The CEMVC’s Coat of Arms collection seeks to highlight common symbols and themes represented in Coats of Arms across North, Central, and South America. Our team specifically searched for Coats of Arms featuring 8 different topics: 1) Books, 2) Indigenous people, 3) Mythical Monsters & Beasts, 4) Outlines of Territories, 5) People of Colour, 6) Tributes to Europe & Colonialism, 7) Water, and 8) Women. Moreover, many of the topics relate back to understanding the countries’ colonial pasts and seeing how that background is still present and displayed today.

To find these representations, the CEMVC researchers looked to each level of government based on countries’ regional divisions. For example, starting at the country level, they then moved to provincial, then municipal or departmental in countries organized as such. Through this strategy, the researchers found that the 8 topics proved widespread across the countries. For example, in the following slide show, some examples of the mythical creatures seen in Coats of Arms can be found. Of the three images selected, one can see that they come from three different cultural backgrounds and countries: Canada, Colombia, and Mexico. Each example features different mythical beings: unicorns, mermaids, and centaurs. From this, one can interpret that the tradition of mythical creatures was widespread across the continent.