Why a centuries-old Mexica myth became Mexico’s enduring symbol
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The all-powerful eagle perched on a cactus while devouring a snake on the Mexican flag alludes to the myth behind the founding of the country’s capital.
This is a divine sign in an ancient legend, according to which the god Huitzilopochtli asked a group called the Mexica – who founded what was later known as the Aztec Empire – to leave their homeland in search of a place to establish a new city.
It took about 175 years before they spotted the sacred omen and founded the city of Tenochtitlan in 1325, where Mexico City is today.
How the eagle, the cactus and the snake became an emblem and endured throughout the European conquest is the focus of a new exhibition. “A coat of arms, an emblem, a symbol of identity” will be displayed until December 15 at the Old City Hall in downtown Mexico City.
The exhibition is part of government activities marking the 700th anniversary of the founding of the Mexican capital.
“Recognizing Tenochtitlan does not mean recalling a dead past, but rather the living heartbeat that still beats beneath our city,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said during an official ceremony in July. “It was the center of an indigenous world that built its own model of civilization, in harmony with the Earth, the stars and its gods and goddesses. »
Fragments of this civilization can be found beneath the old city hall, the current seat of Mexico City’s government.
Built by order of the Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés in 1522, its construction used stones from ancient Mexican sacred sites. The building has been renovated over time, but its rooms have witnessed centuries of governance and symbolism.
“Holding the exhibition in this city hall, a place of decisions and memory, is a way of recognizing the history of those who inhabited it and how its transformations still echo in the identity of Mexico City,” said Mariana Gómez Godoy, director of cultural heritage of Mexico City, at the inauguration of the exhibition in November.
The mythical origin of a city
The Mexica themselves recorded their history after the fall of Tenochtitlan to Europeans. Several codices describe the path that led them to accomplish the task of their divinity.
Eduardo Matos Moctezuma – a renowned archaeologist at Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History – has argued that the legend is a symbolic account of historical events, rather than a literal claim about a divine prophecy.
Yet, according to the Templo Mayor Museum, the region’s pre-Hispanic peoples preserved the origin story of a long journey that led to the founding of Tenochtitlan as a cornerstone of their traditions.
They honored a small island in Lake Texcoco, today in the center of Mexico City, as the place where the Mexica found the eagle predicted by Huitzilopochtli.
From ancient prophecy to national symbol
The new exhibit offers a historical overview of the image’s evolution — from its creation as the city’s coat of arms in 1523 under Emperor Charles V to its transformation into the emblem of Mexico as an independent nation.
Curated by researcher Guadalupe Lozada, it also features images illustrating how it was adopted by religious orders responsible for converting indigenous peoples to Catholicism.
While the eagle and the cactus were already adopted by Europeans in the mid-16th century, the Jesuits introduced the snake decades later. “From that moment on, it will remain a symbol of the city’s identity, a symbol that will also spread to the rest of New Spain,” Lozada said.
According to her, many monasteries dating from the 17th century bear witness to the way in which the friars displayed the eagle and the cactus in their sanctuaries. Even today, the emblem is still visible above the facade of the Mexico City Cathedral and inside one of its chapels.
“The strength of Mexican culture was such that evangelizers sought to embrace it rather than exclude it,” she said. “It was like saying, ‘I recognize your story.'”
The same logic applied to European conquerors. Even though they ordered the destruction of Mexican religious complexes, the representation of the founding myth was not erased from history.
“For them, conquering a city like Tenochtitlan was a matter of pride and so they never intended to deny its existence,” Lozada said. “This means that the strength of the city buried beneath the news is underlying and resurfacing – as if it had never disappeared.”
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