The muralist who gave us a homeland

By Veka Duncan

If there is a turning point in the history of our country, a before and after in the shaping of contemporary Mexico, it is without a doubt 1968. It is not necessary to list here the events we all know about, but it is worthwhile to evoke them within the framework of Flag Day - the date we commemorate today - since it was also in 1968 that it took the shape we honor today. We could thus assure that that year our homeland took on its present face in more than one sense.

The fateful and glorious events of 1968 are intertwined, in a certain way, in the history of the flag. As is well known, the Olympic Games were presented as a unique opportunity to show the world a new, modern and powerful Mexico. Up to that moment, the flag used was still the one instituted by Lázaro Cárdenas in 1938, and much had changed in the country since then. Thus, President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz ordered the creation of a new national symbol that would represent contemporary Mexico. One of his concerns was the image it projected of the country, because until then the eagle's head had appeared bent, an attitude that did not seem to represent the strength of a people that had fought for its sovereignty; for Díaz Ordaz the eagle should appear aggressive, which, in retrospect, is shocking.