To our Mexican forefathers history was important, because they viewed themselves as a predestined people. This is a poem written by our forefathers about the Mexican nation’s predestination to greatness:
By Franco
Proud of itself
Is the nation of Mexico
Here no one fears to die in war
This is our glory
This is your Command
Oh Giver of Life
Have this in mind, Mexican warriors
Who could conquer Mexico?
Who could shake the foundation of heaven?
Just as the Jews wandered in the desert for forty years searching for the promised land; similarly the Aztecs left Aztlan urged by the Great Spirit who spoke to their priests commanding them to undertake a great pilgrimage to find the Mexican promised land: the place of the cactus and the eagle. Visions revealed their predestination: a great eagle perched on a nopal cactus. Through their legendary warrior-chief Huitzilopochtli, the Great Spirit commanded that they were no longer to call themselves Aztecs but to take the name of Mexican (Mexica). They wandered through harsh landscapes, filled with dangers: fierce enemies, snake infested deserts, steep mountains, intolerable heat and cold. Insurmountable obstacles discouraged them, but every time just as they were about to give up the journey, the Great Spirit spoke to their priests exhorting them to continue. Visions of the greatness awaiting in the future gave them consolation.
Probably none of the original adult men and women who left Aztlan lived to see the promised land of the eagle and the cactus. After surviving innumerable misfortunes and hardships, along with endless wandering, they had finally had enough, they asked the Great Spirit to let them die, they had reached their limit. The Great Spirit gave them a final command, “in the morning they should seek the eagle and the cactus,” the end of the journey was near. So it came to pass, the next morning they witnessed the great sign, on a nopal cactus they witnessed an eagle with his wings stretched out toward the rays of the sun, basking in the warmth and the freshness of the morning. The Mexicans bowed as a sign of reverence, the eagle a manifestation of the Great Spirit, seeing them, bowed his head in their direction. The Mexicans began to weep with contentment and joy, their pilgrimage had come to an end.
These first Mexican fathers and mothers probably just had a slight knowledge or hunch that they were founding the great Mexican nation of the distant future. Their actions were based on their faith in the Great Spirit and His revelations to them. It was to be their later descendants who witnessed the unfolding of the prophecies and revelations as Mexicans became the lords of Anahuac (America). Mexican philosophers and theologians came to understand the importance of those ancient prophecies and revelations that favored the Mexican nation. Because the Mexican people’s destiny is to endure until the end of time, Mexican history is precious. The Mexican Tlatoani (Great Leader) Moctezuma I commissioned a group of scholars and warriors to carry out an expedition to discover the location of Aztlan. The findings of this commission are not available to us due to the burning of these books by the superstitious Spaniards who believed the books were written by the devil.
When the Europeans invaded Mexico with smallpox, decimating the population and ending the rule of Mexicans in Anahuac (America), the event was used by Europeans to argue against the validity of the prophecies and revelations, since the Mexican nation had ceased to exist, buried in the cemetery of history. Yet the prophecies of our forefathers were not wrong because a little time later, the Europeans would be defeated, expulsed from Anahuac, their Spanish flag captured. The Eagle and Cactus flag was raised victorious, the Mexican nation was reborn. Mexico asserted its ancient destiny to endure until the end of time.
Where is Aztlan? It is primarily in our hearts, we are the children of those first fathers and mothers who left ancient Aztlan, we are the prophecies of the future they received. Their visions, their revelations, are about us, and the future generations, the Mexican people who will endure until the end of time.