Latin America

A few of the pictures are from Teotihuacan which was not Aztec but already abandoned and named by the Aztecs when they discovered it. It means, "the place where gods are created."

The Mexican flag shows an eagle eating a serpent while sitting on a cactus. This was the supposed sign the Aztecs were to look for that would let them know to stop being nomadic and to build a city.

One of my Spanish professors had an interesting interpretation. He thinks that the nobles and priest were tired of being nomadic, and when they got to Lake Texoco, they saw the eagle-serpent-cactus combo, and they huddled together and decided they would just tell everyone that it was a sign from the gods, and the working class needed to start building a city.

Part of the legend also says that a priest jumped into the lake and talked to the water god (and my namesake) Tlaloc, who verified that, yep, that was the symbol all right.