The Foundation of Tenochtitlan – A Mexican Story

This year is the 700 anniversary of the founding of Tenochtitlan.

Around the year 1325, a group of Mechicas began a pilgrimage South of “Aztlan,” their land of the seven caves. They were guided by their god Huitzilopochtli, who told them to settle down where they found an “Eagle eating a serpent while perched on a cactus.
During their pilgrimage to the South, they stayed in various different places where they learned the culture, religion, and science from other cultures that had flourished before them. 

The Mechicas became mercenaries for some of the city-states of the area around Lake Texcoco. In time they formed an alliance with the lords of Tlacopan and Texcoco. They finally saw the eagle eating a serpent perched on a cactus in the middle of Lake Texcoco, and it was there that they built their famous city of Tenochtitlan.

They created “Chinampas.” Chinampas were artificial islands made out rafts which they covered with soil from the bottom of the lake and planted with corn, beans, squash, chiles, and quelites, and trees.

The Mechica, also known as “Aztecs,” used the food surplus to trade, and pretty soon, they were taking tribute from most of the city-states around them and as far as Costa Rica, and Sonora.  Today, The Mexican flag’s symbol is:

“The Eagle was eating a Serpent while perched on a cactus”