Have you been wondering what the emblem on the Mexican flag represents? Well we’ve got it all on the legend that surrounds the vivid imagery on the National Mexican flag.
The Mexican flag features no ordinary art. Especially when you consider the fact that it is a flag representing a country you realize how different it is from the other flags that we have in the world. The green, white and red tricolor flag is eye catching to say the least but the real focal point is the vivid imagery in the center of the flag. Mexico formalized the color and meaning of the flag following independence from Spain. The current flag of Mexico was adopted by the country in 1968 but the design of the flag dates back all the way to 1821.
Llegend behind the Coat of arms
The image that occupies the centre space in the flag is known as the coat of arms. This rather vivid image has a long history behind it finding its roots in the ancient Aztec legend. This particular legend deals with the discovery of Tenochtitlan. The legend goes that the Aztec people were a tribe of nomads who roamed the expansive land of Mexico waiting for a sign from the mysteries of nature that would indicate for them the precise location where they should build their capital. The Aztec people were a tribe indulged in polytheism. They believed in many Gods each having a specific aspect of life under his control.
In the case of this story the War God known as Huitzilopochtli had told them to look for a specific sign in the plains of Mexico. The sign was an eagle which would be perched on top of a prickly pear cactus that would be growing on a submerged rock in a lake. As if the chances of finding such a composition weren’t slim enough, the eagle would have a freshly killed serpent in its mouth. Sure enough they had to roam the lands for quite some time. It is believed that they found the sign after two hundred years of roaming the Mexican plains on a swampy Lake Texcoco on an island. This is where they built their capital which was known as Tenochtitlan back then. The current capital of Mexico is in the same region but now it goes by the name of Mexico City.
In the course of history the Mexican flag has under gone 4 revisions regarding the design of the coat of arms and the length-width ratios. In all the four revisions the coat of arms has remained constant, that is the eagle with the serpent in its mouth perched on a cactus growing on a rock rising from a lake. Some graphic adaptations and enhancements have been made to this image but the sign from the tell tale of the Aztec legend has remained the same. The flags that Mexico had before they adopted this symbol also featured an eagle. But the over all setting was different as the eagle had a crown and was branched on a three arched bridge featuring the letters V.V.M. Nonetheless as time moved on and Mexico gained freedom from Spain they adopted the flag that we see rising on the posts in Mexico.
