The Original Flag of Mexico
Mexico’s flag has seen several changes in its history. Although beautiful as is, its symbols and imagery are borrowed from an even more beautiful flag, that of the Mexica.
Long before it was green, white and red, it was a turquoise green said to represent nature and sky.
Also different is the atl-tlachinolli symbol, Nahuatl for water and fire, emanating from the eagle’s mouth, not a serpent. Atl-tlachinolli representing the natural elements that give us life.
The Mexica saw the eagle with an atl-tlachinolli as both a symbol of nature’s power and of their sovereignty as a nation.
Spanish historians recorded this flag as the one flown in battle by Cuitlahuac and his troops the night they defeated Hernán Cortés and his men on the shores of Lake Texcoco on July 1, 1520.
Mexican scholar Ignacio Romero Vargas Iturbide reportedly discovered one of these original flags in the Vatican’s private library. The Vatican has not officially recognized it being in their possession.
(via autentico-decadente)
