The Mexican National Shield

The Mexican National Shield, is a symbol that represents the set of states that make up the country of Mexico and today has a representation such that in all official documents, coins and national symbols, this symbol.

The origin of the symbol and of this shield goes back to the conformation of the city of Tenochtitlan; city ​​that was built where an eagle was found devouring a snake while it perched on a cactus, an eagle that was found on a stone in the center of a lake.

It is because of this that the city of Tenochtitlan was built in the Anahuac valley, and that is why, if required, the city of Mexico would take the name of the State of Anáhuac.

The current conformation of the national shield is preceded by other placements, in which the eagle had other positions such as open wings, the symbol was used as a banner for the indigenous populations who continued to use it at the end of the Conquest, but framed in nopal stalks, which symbolized indigenous kings overdue.

Already during the Independence struggle in 1811, the Supreme National Board established in Zitácuaro, used the Mexican eagle as a seal in its official documentation.

After the Iturbide Empire, this indigenous symbol was constituted but also with branches of oak and laurel, emblems of strength and victory.

During the Government of the first President of Mexico, “Don Guadalupe Victoria", Currency with the Mexican national shield was issued in the aforementioned form and it was until the time when the President ruled"Don Porfirio Diaz”, When the national flag officially adopted vertical stripes and the front eagle with outstretched wings.

He is the President of the Republic "DonVenustiano Carranza”, In 1916, who issued a decree establishing the Mexican national shield with the Mexican eagle in the form that we currently know.

The eagle represents the cosmic force of the sun, the serpent the potentialities of the earth. The eagle devouring the serpent means the union of the vital principles, orients towards goals of improvement to starting from human knowledge achieving intimate contact with nature, with the earth and a bold disposition for the struggle. The dynamic activity of his people would lead human life to higher levels, the nopal was for the ancient Mexicans a beautiful plant attractive and original characteristic of the landscape, it would give its name to its great Tenochtitlan, which in its simplest sense means "between tunas and nopales ".

The national shield was altered during the presidency of “Vicente Fox Quezada”, Having been sectioned, showing the upper part and removing the lower symbols, because of which, when the presidency of his successor Felipe Calderón Hinojosa began, it was restored in its official conformation, which is stipulated by law in the Law on the Shield, the Flag and the National Anthem, in its second chapter, “On the characteristics of the symbols patrios ”.

Quote:

“… Article 2: The National Shield is made up of a Mexican eagle, with the left profile exposed, the upper part of the wings at a level higher than the plume and slightly spread out in the attitude of combat; with the holding plumage down touching the tail and the tail feathers in a natural fan. It rests its left claw on a flowered nopal that is born in a rock that emerges from a lake, held with the right and with the beak, in an attitude of devouring, a curved serpent, so that it harmonizes with the set. Several cactus stalks branch at the sides. Two branches, one of oak in front of the eagle and the other of laurel on the opposite side, form a lower semicircle between them and are joined by the middle of a ribbon divided into three stripes that, when the National Shield is represented in natural colors, correspond to those of the Flag National…"