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THE FLAG OF MEXICO
From always the human societies have used symbols on standards and flags with the purpose of identifying themselves to the world like kingdom, nation or group owner of an identity and philosophy. The standards, inevitably associated to the fight, have waved in a no end of battlefields, giving to soldier moments of inspiration, glory and heroism.
Since 1937, is commemorating in Mexico the "Day of the Flag" on February 24, in front of the monument of the General Don Vicente Guerrero, the first Mexican military man who swore to the Flag in the memorable embrace of Acatempan on March 12, 1821.
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The badge of our mother country has had many changes in the course of history. In order to know a little more about it, we will give you a brief chronological journey from the time of the colony, continuing with the Independent Mexico and thus to the present time. Many flags have existed, same which have represented not only our nation, but diverse armed movements and social fights throughout the times. And although it is difficult to mention each one of the soldiers, battalions and regiments that had an own flag and distinctive, somehow they pay homage to it when celebrating our flag with honors, being each one the forger of which we are at the moment nation and society.
Going back to the time of the Aztec power, we found that the Flag of Atzacoalco was a kind of a great parasol of yellow gold feathers that wore the General of the Army. The standard of Cuepopan was formed of three white flags, atzapámitl, united and with panache of Quetzal that belonged to Tlacohcalcatl. The others are the standards of Moyotla and Zoquiapan. Each squadron of the mexica army had a chief; this was the tepuchtlato. The soldiers of each calpulli chose his, and to distinguish in campaigns this chief wore on his back the flag of his calpulli; besides the flag or pantli, to distinguish itself better, the ichcahuipilli were covered with feathers of diverse colors, so that if those of a squadron used white and incarnated, those of others had them blue and yellows or in different ways.
The chiefs of the mexica army had his standard or special flag, with more or less adornments according to its superiority. The followers of Hernán Cortés, after the "Sad Night", already withdrawal to Tlaxcala, arrived at the plain between Otumba and Ajapuxco on July 7, 1520 place where they faced near 200,000 Aztec warriors. The battle was bloody; and near noon, the Spaniards and his Tlaxcaltecas allies began to disperse themselves and Cortés, that knew by the Malinche many customs the Aztecs, sent itself against the chief of the troops, that was who carried the standard. Shoving him with his horse, pull him down and thus Juan de Salamanca, one of his captains, snatched him the standard. The warriors when seeing fallen his chief and snatched their flag, they considered the battle lost and they undertook withdrawal. Properly said, that Aztec standard could be considered as the first Mexican flag.
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Before leaving Santiago de Cuba, the conqueror brought with him a pennant that few months after remaining in the one that would be the New Spain; he changed it for another one with the image of the Santísima Virgin, of which he was very devotee. This standard was the one he used through all the conquest. During the viceroyalty a flag was used that comes from beginning of Century XVI, made in silk of tawny brown color, with a great Cross of San Andrés at the center, ending its arms in the shield of the City of Mexico. It was placed during the great solemnities in the central balcony of the viceregal palace (today National Palace in the city of Mexico).
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When beginning Hidalgo the movement of independence and needing a standard to continue its fight, arrives to Atotonilco el Grande, today State of Guanajuato and takes from the vestry of the parish an oil painting with the Virgin of Guadalupe, adopted as the flag of insurgents. Knowing this done by Hidalgo, the realistic forces adopt the Virgin of the Remedies, who is venerating in the sanctuary of the same name in Mexico City, giving her the degree of "Mariscala". On the other hand, in 1812 the generalissimo Don Jose Maria Morelos y Pavón created a flag in which appear for the first time an eagle perched on top of a nopal upon an aqueduct, with an imperial crown and a legend in Latin. This flag was present in the battle of Morelia.
When promulgated "the Plan of Iguala" (September 24, 1821), Iturbide adopted as flag the one of the Three Guarantees, whose confection was ordered to the tailor José Magdaleno Ocampo. The Flag consists of three diagonal strips, remaining the colors in the following order: white that symbolizes the purity of the catholic religion; green that represents as well insurgent movement or to independence; and red that represents the Spanish group adhered to the liberating impulse. On each one of the strips it has a star, but it does not appear the eagle like in the posterior standards. This flag was the one that marched on September 27, 1821 when Independence was carried out.
During the empire of Iturbide, the Infantry Regiment of Provisional Line of Puebla was endowed with a very similar flag to the Iguala (Flag of the three guarantees), with the difference that this one has on its center, within an oval, a crown with an inscription on its superior side that says: "Religion, Independence, Union", and another one on its inferior side that says: "Infantry Regiment". On November 2, 1821 Don Agustín de Iturbide, as President of the Government Provisional Meeting integrated by 38 more celebrities, decreed "that the National flag would have to contain vertical strips, with green, white and red colors, adding on the center of the white color an eagle crowned, perched on the legendary nopal (Nahoa). This flag ruled in all the ceremonies during the empire of Iturbide, from its coronation on July 21, 1822 to the defeat of Iturbide in 1823. The Constituent Congress determined how it had to be the flag of Mexico: it would have three vertical strips, each one of different color. The strip next to the flagstaff must be green, the one on the center, white and the one on the extreme, red. On the strip of the center would be an eagle of Mexican origin, without crown, that was perched on a nopal, which would grow in a rock surrounded by water. The eagle had to be perched on its left paw, with its right paw would grab a serpent in attitude to tear it with its beak. Besides it had to be framed by the republican symbols: branches of oak and laurel.
During the Empire of Maximiliano a flag was adopted on which the eagle was placed under the crown of the French empire. Soon, Don Porfirio Diaz ordered to place the eagle faced and with the wings extended. As everyone had a different idea of how it had to be the shield, Venustiano Carranza determined in 1916 to place the eagle on its left side and to conserve the characteristics with which the mexicas had conceived them when they discovered the land where they would found Tenochtitlan.
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Lic. Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, President of Mexico from 1964 to 1970, decreed changes to the National Shield on September 17, 1968 by that we know at the moment, same that has some differences with the decreed one by Don Venustiano Carranza in 1916.
The flag, the shield and the National anthem: native symbols whose existence goes back to the time of Independence; crucible where ideals and race were fused, to mold throughout many decades a free and sovereign state where the work, the passion and the legality project the dream of his children: Mexico. |
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