This month, Mexico as soon as once more marks the 700th anniversary of México-Tenochtitlan’s founding. In July 2021, then-president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (colloquially often called AMLO) led the same celebration, drawing criticism from students due to historic inaccuracies. This 12 months’s festivities embrace public artwork, city routes, performances and dances organised by federal and native authorities. Whereas honouring Mexico Metropolis’s origins, the event underscores an ideological give attention to the nation’s Indigenous previous. Whereas this phenomenon will not be new, it has been accentuated below current politicians and their administrations.
Mexican identification
Tenochtitlan is synonymous with Mexico’s pre-Hispanic previous. The town’s founding is tied to the Mexica migration from Aztlán to a promised land, symbolised by an eagle on a cactus devouring a snake. The parable shapes Mexico’s identification and is even proven on its flag. “The Mexican state’s identification has largely been Mexica-centric as a part of conventional nationalistic views,” says Federico Navarrete, an historian on the Nationwide Autonomous College of Mexico. He additionally notes that town’s growth ties to Tenochtitlan past nationalism.
Though historic accounts differ, the 12 months 1325 is Tenochtitlan’s most cited founding date, with 1321 scarcely talked about. “The date will all the time be debatable; historic precision is unattainable,” says Navarrete, including that essential teams coexisted within the area for greater than 2,000 years. Many argue that AMLO’s 2021 commemoration manipulated historical past: “It was formed by the political local weather, aiming for an excessively patriotic celebration conveniently coinciding with the five hundredth anniversary of Tenochtitlan’s fall and the two hundredth anniversary of Mexican independence,” says the historian Rodrigo Martínez.
Past debates about dates, celebrations mirrored AMLO’s nationalist focus—continued now by President Claudia Sheinbaum—highlighting Mexico’s Indigenous roots over its colonial previous. “We should have a good time the founding of Tenochtitlan, one of many final nice cities to fall to the Spanish invasion, and vindicate its legacy,” Sheinbaum stated at a press convention. “For years, the Conquest was portrayed as civilising, but it surely was, in reality, an invasion that ended our nice civilisations.”
Such a vindication has included presidential inaugurations that includes Indigenous symbols and Sheinbaum’s current first-ever state funeral for Cuauhtémoc, which marked 500 years because the final Mexica ruler’s execution. Below AMLO, diplomatic tensions additionally erupted after an unsuccessful demand for a Spanish apology for the Conquest, whereas the restitution of Mesoamerican artefacts grew to become a precedence.
Navarrete notes one other distinction with previous regimes: “There’s a symbolic and discursive valorisation, but additionally an actual one in every of dwelling Indigenous teams.” That is mirrored, for instance, within the Nationwide Museum of Anthropology’s reinaugurated ethnographic galleries and the cultural ministry’s new Unit of Residing Cultures, Intangible Heritage and Interculturality.
July festivities
The Zócalo, close to the Mexica Templo Mayor web site, is now centre stage. Festivities started there on 11 July with the momentary show of 5 large-scale reproductions of Mexica items, some excavated close by, just like the Aztec Calendar Stone and the well-known Coatlicue statue. Distributors promote illuminated headdresses and eagle-shaped kites, whereas individuals in conventional apparel—a standard sight at Zócalo—carry out rituals and pose for selfies.
At night time, Memoria Luminosa, a video-mapping projection on the Palacio Nacional and the Cathedral’s partitions, narrates 700 years of metropolis historical past. The hour-long projection (till 27 July) covers social, cultural and each day life, framing political transformations by way of the present administration’s lens. It additionally connects to the exhibited Mexica items by describing their discovery and symbolism.
However this projection has not escaped controversy. “Some pictures go in opposition to the Catholic religion,” said a press launch from the Catholic Church, prompting its removing from the Cathedral.
“Memoria Luminosa captures social manifestations within the metropolis’s historical past and cultural, authorized and political shifts,” Mexico Metropolis’s cultural ministry responded in an announcement. “There is no such thing as a intention to harm any devotion.” The contested pictures, later eliminated, associated to abortion.
Folks wearing conventional apparel carry out rituals and pose for selfies at Zócalo Picture: Constanza Ontiveros Valdés
Solar celebrations
The principle occasions, largely centred on the Mexica founding motif, are set for 26 July, aligning with the solar’s second zenith passage—a key astronomical occasion for Mesoamerican cultures and present-day Concheros (ritual dance teams). On Saturday, greater than 3,500 Mexica-inspired dancers will parade from Chapultepec to the Zócalo, re-enacting the legendary pilgrimage. Mexico’s defence ministry may even organise an 800-person historic re-enactment, together with the hierophanic tableau.
A brand new everlasting monument, Tlalmanalli, might be unveiled as effectively: a scaled duplicate of the Teocalli de la Guerra Sagrada (round 1507), the earliest recognized stone bas-relief depicting the eagle and cactus. The monolith reinforces the scene’s significance in Mexico Metropolis’s central plaza. “Tlalmanalli, this providing, honours seven centuries of identification and greatness that Mexico-Tenochtitlan was and nonetheless is,” stated Diego Prieto, then-director of Mexico’s Nationwide Institute of Anthropology and Historical past.
Celebrations will proceed all year long. A public artwork exhibition alongside the Paseo de la Reforma will add 250 cactus sculptures adorned by completely different artists, additional emphasising the plant’s symbolism. An upcoming city path may even observe the 23km structure of Tenochtitlan and close by Tlatelolco. “The challenge intends to attach metropolis inhabitants with the Mexica previous and its continuity by way of an intervened city stroll alongside accessible, research-backed content material,” says Navarrete who, together with different specialists, is behind the government-supported unbiased initiative.
The multifaceted programming celebrates Tenochtitlan’s founding, connecting it to present-day Mexico Metropolis and, at instances, inspiring patriotism. Nevertheless, some warn in opposition to its perceived idealisation.
“A commemoration is legitimate and even essential,” Martínez says. ”However it is very important keep away from falling into overly patriotic or apologetic narratives a couple of previous that, like several historic second, deserves each reward and critique.”
