The snake is of and pertaining to these Américas, yes, the eagle and nopal [variety of cactus] as well ... they are all things mexicanos also, these are not mutually exclusive qualities, 'mexicano' is a subset of 'americano', like 'chileno' or 'brasileño' or 'timminsontino'
Saliva on the wreath will be from youngsters testing it for smokeability, and does not figure in the heraldry .... the leaves are laurel one side, and oak the other i think, these are supposed to be ancient greek symbols representing a republican form of government, they were added in the 1820s when the spanish monarchy was finally evicted .... short story on the escudo, the azteca were on a hunting trip south from a place now called Utah, they had in their legends a prophecy that they would settle where an eagle landed on a nopal to eat a snake, this happened to take place in the valley of México, so they settled and after some years of mixing with local girls called themselves mexica ... the rocks in which grew the nopal have been levelled out, and now form the Zócalo, centre of the city of México .... somewhere along the line another prophecy developed, that a blond god on a dragon or something would come out of the east and rule them, so when Cortés came along on a horse their inability to distinguish that animal from a dragon, or a god from a european, was crucial in what happened next .... ironic a little maybe, that the horse as a species had begun in Utah, or very near, but had been eaten to extinction by an invasion of eurasians some tens of centuries before, and the fair-haired fellow from across the sea was performing at least one useful service in re-introducing it .... all in all, not completely unlike what passes for a prophecy success story on Howe Street |
