Centre Class

Red in the flag brings to mind the blood shed by the nation's heroes

Green represents hope and victory

White stands for the purity of Mexican ideals.

The Mexican flag is red, white and green. the centre of the flag has an eagle eating a rattlesnake while standing with its left claw on a nopal cactus and a half circle of green oak on the left, which symbolises strength, and laurel branches on the right, which symbolises victory.

The eagle eating a snake on a cactus comed from an ancient Aztec legend. The legend says that the Aztec people were told by their God, Huitzilopochtli, that to find their promised land they had to find the place where an eagle landed on a nopal cactus whilst eating a snake. After searching for hundreds of years they found the eagle on a small swampy island in Lake Texcoco. This new Aztec home was named Tenochtitlan, which means the place of the Nopal cactus, and in 1325 they built what is now called Mexico City, which is the Capital of Mexico.

The flag was first used on September 17th 1968, it was decreed by Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, it was a variation on a flag first used in 1821.