“The legacy of Tenochtitlan lives on in the silent resistance of the people.”

▲ Adelfo Regino, Director General of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples; Clara Brugada, Mayor of Mexico City; General Ricardo Trevilla, Secretary of National Defense; Claudia Sheinbaum, President of Mexico, and her husband, Jesús María Tarriba; Admiral Raymundo Pedro Morales, Secretary of the Navy and High Command of the Mexican Navy; Rosa Icela Rodríguez, Secretary of the Interior; and Rita María Romero, special guest of the National Council of Indigenous Peoples, during the unveiling of the Teocalli of the Sacred War. Photo by Jair Cabrera Torres

Angel Vargas and Alma E. Muñoz

La Jornada Newspaper, Sunday, July 27, 2025, p. 2

Leading the ceremony commemorating the 700th anniversary of the founding of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo insisted yesterday that the Fourth Transformation is not just an economic or political project; it is, above all, a project of dignity, which recognizes that there can be no true justice unless we begin by settling the historical debt owed to Indigenous peoples .

To the applause of hundreds of guests in the stands surrounding the Zócalo square, he asserted that there can be no democracy if the voices of those who have been resisting for centuries are excluded . Nor can there be a national identity, he added, without recognizing or accommodating Mexico's profound and proud indigenous face, its essence, and its cultural grandeur .

She pointed out that if discrimination was intended to mark history, such action was even harsher, deeper and more systematic when it was directed at indigenous women: They were not only denied political or economic power, but also the right to speak their language, to protect their bodies, to be recognized as people, with history and with rights .

According to the president, the colonial structure did not disappear with Independence, but rather persisted in the forms of power, in racism, in the exclusion of indigenous peoples, and in the marginalization that millions of Mexicans still experience.

It was revealed at different moments in history, especially during the Mexican Revolution, but it prevailed for many years afterwards, especially throughout the neoliberal period.

However, the President emphasized, the legacy of Tenochtitlan has not been defeated: it lives on in the silent resistance of the people, in the Nahuatl language that is still spoken, in the corn that continues to be planted, in traditional medicine, in rituals, in the names of our hills, our rivers, our streets, our towns; in the name of our homeland: Mexico .

According to Sheinbaum Pardo, recognizing Tenochtitlan is not talking about a dead past , but about a living pulse that navigates with our capital city, but also in our words, our food, our customs and, above all, our cultural greatness and our identity .

He affirmed that the ancient Mexica capital was much more than a majestic city; it was a symbol of organization, power, science, art, and vision: It was the center of an indigenous world that knew how to build its own model of civilization, in harmony with the earth, the stars, and its gods and goddesses.

Called Mexico-Tenochtitlan: Seven Centuries of the Legacy of Greatness, the ceremony included the unveiling of a memorial commemorating the anniversary in the northern corner of Constitution Plaza, at the corner of the National Palace and Moneda Street.

The central part of this monument is crowned by a reproduction of the Teocalli of the Sacred War, a monolith of pre-Hispanic origin on whose front is the year two of the Mexica house (1325, in the western calendar), and on whose back is carved the image of the eagle on a cactus devouring a snake, the sign given to the Mexica by their deities to found their city there.

At the conclusion of the official speeches, a group of more than 800 members of the Army and armed forces performed a theatrical representation of the founding of the great Tenochtitlan, from the departure of the Mexica from the mythical Aztlán, place of the herons, to the years of pilgrimage they made to find the islet with the sign given by their god Huitzilopochtli to determine the site of their settlement.

It was a half-hour show that recounted this historical epic through music, dance, video projections, and special effects, such as smoke and a shower of colored paper.

Earlier, in her speech, Mexico City's head of government, Clara Brugada, described this day as a glorious one , and noted that one of the greatest and most astonishing cultures of the ancient world flourished and was built in this ancient city.

The city they built was a marvel of engineering, organization, artistry, and mastery. Those who saw it in its heyday were awestruck. Its floating causeways, its sky-high temples, its fertile chinampas, its teeming markets—these have never been seen again, and so the glory of Tenochtitlan remains intact .

There is no history of immovable bronze

Among other officials from the official and expanded cabinet, the new director of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), Joel Omar Vázquez Herrera, and the head of the recently created Unit of Living Cultures, Intangible Heritage, and Interculturality of the federal Ministry of Culture, Diego Prieto Hernández, arrived at the capital's first office.

The importance of this commemorative event is a precedent for what can give us identity and what we are today as Mexicans , said the head of the INAH.

Regarding the celebrations four years ago, held during the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Diego Prieto rejected the idea that history is being falsified, as some historians and specialists have claimed.

There is no history of bronze that is immutable , he maintained. “What is important, more than going into details—which must be analyzed and discussed—is the profound meaning of a celebration like this, of the strength and grandeur of what this pre-Hispanic capital was, because, as the songs say, as long as the world exists, the glory and fame of Mexico-Tenochtitlan will not perish.”

For writer and historian Paco Ignacio Taibo II, there is no controversy over whether the year of Mexico-Tenochtitlan's founding was 1321 or 1325.

The idea was clear: to celebrate an extraordinarily long-lived city, but, above all, to pose a very simple problem: that this city was made through social struggle , he asserted.

▲ The Government of the Mexican Republic yesterday commemorated the 700th anniversary of the mythical founding of Mexico-Tenochtitlan with the unveiling of a memorial alluding to the event and a staged performance in which 838 members of the Army and Armed Forces recreated the founding of the great city. The tour spanned the period from the departure of the Mexica from Aztlán, the place of the herons, to the years of their pilgrimage to find the islet with the sign given by their god Huitzilopochtli to determine their settlement site: an eagle perched on a cactus devouring a snake. It was a half-hour performance that recounted this historic episode alongside music, dance, video, and special effects. Photo by Jair Cabrera Torres

La Jornada Newspaper, Sunday, July 27, 2025, p. 3