Mexican coat of arms

According to popular legend, the Aztec people, then a nomadic tribe, were wandering in Mexico in search of a sign that their god Huitzilopochtli had commanded them to find: a Crested Caracara perched atop a cactus, devouring a snake. After two hundred years of wandering, they found the promised sign on a small island in the swampy Lake Texcoco. Here they founded their new capital, Tenochtitlán.

The coat of arms of the Mexican Republic, which was adopted in 1821, depicts a caracara eating a snake that it is holding in its claw. The design also forms the center of the Mexican flag.