Extract from the report explaining the meaning of our emblem by Guillermo Redondo Veintemillas.

Military and civilian traditions were taken into account when designing the emblem you now see before you. This was the result of borrowing a figure from Antiquity, from Greco-Roman culture, which is deeply-rooted in the folklore of Modern Europe: the goddess Athenea (Minerva to the ancient Romans, whose most significant virtue was Wisdom.

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Wisdom as a theme has been employed in the use of military emblems of several military academies as well as in civilian administration. This is the case of the University of Zaragoza, which first used a Minerva for its emblem in 1837, and continued to use it along with an interesting shield of Aragon with St Peter from its founding up to the beginning of the 20th century.

[...]The emblem is therefore represented as follows:

The head of Athenea has a golden helmet, with a vert laurel wreath around it, intertwined with a banner in the colours of Spain,  supporting phylactery in gold, where we can read the motto: ANIMUS DOCENDI (et) DISCENDI NOS UNIT (The desire to teach and learn unites us) in gules (red letters). With this symbol, we understand that the CUD, located in Spain, in the city of Zaragoza (the capital of Aragon), has as its primary objective the desire to teach and to learn in order to train men and women to reach their full potential.

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In phylactery [...], in gules, the name of the organisation, CENTRO UNIVERSITARIO DE LA DEFENSA, in gold, with the enamels, gold and gules representing Spain and the Academia General Militar, where it is located.