Have you ever wondered what the meaning of Mexico is? It was previously the name of the imperial city established by the Mexicas, a group of spirited Aztecs. After a long pilgrimage, they arrived at a rich and temperate high plateau, surrounded by massive snow-capped volcanoes, spotted with lakes that made them think of a lunar landscape. “The bellybutton of the Moon” is what they called that valley: Mexico, in Nahuatl, their native language.
The Mexicas’ quest was to find an eagle on a cactus (“nopal”) devouring a snake and establish their city in that place. They found it in the middle of Lake Texcoco and began building their city. Later on, this turned into the foundational myth of a country with a current population of 126 million people, that took that name: the country of the bellybutton of the moon.
2021 is a year for Mexicans to celebrate three defining moments in our national history.
The first is that 700 years ago, these Mexicas completed a long migration from a mythological place called Aztlan, located somewhere up north (Arizona, perhaps?). They founded Mexico — Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, soon the capital of the Aztec Empire.
Tenochtitlan was an urban innovation with agricultural advances that amazed the Europeans who arrived in the 16th century. They couldn’t find an equivalent city in the “Old World.” The inhabitants built an intricate system of floating cultivation areas on the lakes that became the city itself, and used the channels across them to transport their products between lush public markets (or “tianguis”).
The empire prospered and its principal city-state reflected it with magnificent temples and palaces. It accumulated scientific, artistic and organizational progresses made by other pre-Columbian civilizations. It is still possible to admire remnants from that era in Mexico City’s main square, museums, parks or even subway stations.
A second commemoration for 2021 will be the 500th anniversary of the fall of Tenochtitlan to the Spaniards and their local allies, commanded by Hernán Cortés. A plate in the Tlatelolco square summarizes what happened on August 13, 1521: “It was neither a victory, nor a defeat. It was the painful birth of the mestizo people of present-day Mexico.”
That date also marks the beginning of three centuries of colonial regime in what then became known as New Spain, stretching from what is now the Southwest of the U.S. to the north of Central America. In 1810, priest Miguel Hidalgo tolled the bells of the church in Dolores, Mexico, and started what became an 11-year long war for independence.
The third celebration: On Sept. 27, 200 years ago, an army created by ex-Spanish royalists and independents put an end to the war, and marched into Mexico City. People joined the celebrations with the same three colors of that army’s flag: green, white and red. They still identify Mexicans today.
The eagle devouring a snake and standing on a nopal — the foundational myth — was added to the flag and became our national emblem, rounding our identity with the pride for the indigenous civilizations from which Mexico was formed.
It is my honor to invite all Tucsonans to join us in remembering these events. They are part of our shared history and contribute to the understanding of our past, the appreciation of our present and the hope for a promising future. Our vicinity and diversity will help us keep thriving together, as neighbors, as trade partners, but most of all, as friends.
