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MEXICO CITY (AP) \u2014 The almighty eagle perched on a cactus while devouring a serpent on Mexico\u2019s flag hints at the myth behind the foundation<\/a> of the country\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n It’s a divine sign in an ancient legend, according to which the god Huitzilopochtli asked a group called the Mexica<\/a> \u2014 who founded what was later known as the Aztec Empire \u2014 to leave their homeland in search of a place to establish a new city.<\/p>\n It took some 175 years before they spotted the sacred omen and established the city of Tenochtitlan in 1325 where Mexico City stands today.<\/p>\n How the eagle, the cactus and the serpent became an emblem and endured through the European conquest is the focus of a new exhibition. \u201cA coat of arms, an emblem, a symbol of identity,\u201d runs through Dec. 15 at the Old City Hall in downtown Mexico City.<\/p>\n The exhibit is among the government\u2019s activities marking the 700th anniversary of the founding of the Mexica capital.<\/p>\n \u201cRecognizing Tenochtitlan doesn\u2019t mean recalling a dead past, but rather the living heartbeat<\/a> that still beats beneath our city,\u201d President Claudia Sheinbaum said during an official ceremony<\/a> in July. \u201cIt was the center of an Indigenous world that built its own model of civilization \u2014 one in harmony with the Earth, the stars, and its gods and goddesses.\u201d<\/p>\n Fragments of that civilization lie underneath the Old City Hall, the current seat of Mexico City\u2019s government.<\/p>\n Built by order of Spanish conqueror Hern\u00e1n Cort\u00e9s in 1522, its construction used stones from ancient Mexica sacred sites. The building has been renewed over time, but its halls have witnessed centuries of governance and symbolism.<\/p>\n \u201cHolding the exhibition in this City Hall, a place of decisions and memory, is a way to recognize the history of those who once inhabited it and how its transformations still echo in Mexico City\u2019s identity,\u201d said Mariana G\u00f3mez Godoy, Director of Mexico City\u2019s Cultural Heritage, during the exhibit\u2019s inauguration in November.<\/p>\n A city\u2019s mythic origin<\/p>\n The Mexica themselves recorded their story after Tenochtitlan fell to the Europeans. Several codices depict the path that led them to fulfill their deity\u2019s task.<\/p>\n Eduardo Matos Moctezuma \u2014 an acclaimed archaeologist from Mexico\u2019s National Institute of Anthropology and History<\/a> \u2014 has argued that the legend is a symbolic retelling of historical events, rather than a literal claim about divine prophecy.<\/p>\n Still, according to the Templo Mayor Museum, the region’s pre-Hispanic people<\/a> preserved the origin story of a long journey that led to the founding of Tenochtitlan as a cornerstone of their traditions.<\/p>\n They honored a small island in Lake Texcoco, now central Mexico City, as the place where the Mexica found the eagle foretold by Huitzilopochtli.<\/p>\n From ancient prophecy to national symbol<\/p>\n The new exhibit offers a historical overview of how the image evolved \u2014 from its establishment as the city\u2019s coat of arms in 1523 under Emperor Charles V to its transformation into an emblem of Mexico as an independent nation.<\/p>\n Curated by researcher Guadalupe Lozada, it also displays images portraying how it was adopted by the religious orders in charge of converting the Indigenous people to Catholicism.<\/p>\n While the eagle and cactus were already adopted by Europeans in the mid-16th century, the Jesuits introduced the serpent decades later. \u201cFrom then on, it would remain a symbol of the city\u2019s identity \u2014 one that would also spread throughout the rest of New Spain,\u201d Lozada said.<\/p>\n According to her, plenty of monasteries dating back to the 17th century attest to how friars displayed the eagle and cactus in their sanctuaries. Even today, the emblem can still be seen above the fa\u00e7ade of Mexico City\u2019s cathedral and inside one of its chapels.<\/p>\n \u201cSuch was the strength of Mexica culture that the evangelizers sought to adopt it rather than exclude it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was like saying, \u2018I acknowledge your history.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The same logic applied with the European conquerors. Even as they ordered the destruction of the Mexica religious complexes, the representation of the foundational myth was not erased from history.<\/p>\n \u201cFor them, conquering a city like Tenochtitlan was a matter of pride and therefore they never intended to deny its existence,\u201d Lozada said. \u201cThis meant that the strength of the city buried beneath the new one underlies it and resurfaces \u2014 as if it had never disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration<\/a> with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n