The symbol on the Mexican flag.
A Spanish professor of mine had an interesting thought on that. The original story/legend is that the Aztecs were originally nomadic and had to be until they saw the eagle/serpent/cactus that would tell them where to build a permanent city. When they finally came to lake Texcoco (where they would build Tenochitlan), they saw it. One of the priests dived into the water and met Tlaloc (my namesake), god of water, who commanded them to build their city there.
My Spanish professor proposed this - historically nobody liked the Aztecs because they were already pretty bloodthirsty which meant that wherever they tried to settle, they were chased away, forcing them to be nomadic. On their journey, they came to Lake Texcoco, and the priests looked at it and thought it would be a good place to settle and were tired from all the walking in the first place. They huddled up to discuss it when one of them noticed an eagle eating a serpent on a cactus, and he told the others, "Hey, let's use that as a sign from the gods that we're to settle here so we can get the peasants building a city (making our homes first)." Amidst much chortling and high-fiving for such a good idea, another said, "Someone should do something wacky to really cement the deal... I know, someone jump in the lake and talk to a water god!" Yeah! Great idea! Let's do that!
I always liked his idea.
TlalocW
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