Mexico City marks 700 years since Aztec capital’s founding with vibrant tributes

Mexico City held colourful celebrations on Saturday to mark 700 years since the founding of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that gave rise to the modern metropolis.

The heart of Mexico’s capital transformed into a ceremonial stage as hundreds of artists in Indigenous dress reenacted the founding of Tenochtitlan, the legendary city established by the Mexica people in 1325.

The main square, known as the Zócalo, was filled with traditional music, feathered dancers, sacred rituals and historical tributes as part of a civic celebration highlighting the country’s Indigenous roots.

President Claudia Sheinbaum, attending the commemorations, reminded the public that Mexico’s origins predate Spanish colonisation. “Mexico was not born with the arrival of the Spanish; Mexico was born much earlier with the great civilizations,” she said, calling for an end to racism and the full recognition of Indigenous heritage.

Tenochtitlan, as described in early colonial accounts, was founded after the Mexica received a divine sign from their god Huitzilopochtli, an eagle on a cactus, a symbol that lives on today at the centre of Mexico’s national flag.

The original settlement rose on a small island in Lake Texcoco, surrounded by volcanoes and neighbouring peoples. Though initially permitted to settle by the Tepaneca in exchange for tribute, the Mexica grew into formidable warriors, traders and empire-builders, eventually establishing a city that impressed even the Spanish upon their arrival in the early 1500s.

Chronicler Bernal Díaz del Castillo described palaces, bridges and markets teeming with goods. But historians today stress that much of the founding narrative relies on legend.

Miguel Pastrana, a historian from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said that while the anniversary honours Mexico’s cultural legacy, it is a civic and political gesture rather than a reflection of current academic consensus.

The Mexica, who likely came from a place called Aztlan, brought knowledge of aquatic farming, dam construction and bird hunting, and forged alliances that laid the foundation for their rise.

Tenochtitlan stood until 1521, when it fell to Spanish forces, but its legacy endures as the symbolic and geographic heart of modern Mexico City.

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