Mexico City marks 700 years since its founding by Indigenous people

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico City is marking the 700th anniversary of its founding with a series of public events on Saturday, including artistic performances honoring the city’s Indigenous origins.

Artists in Indigenous clothing reenacted the founding of the Aztec capital in front of the country’s top officials in Mexico City's main square. Later, hundreds of dancers dressed in traditional clothing, feather headdresses, drums, and ankle rattles made of seeds performed sacred dances meant to connect with nature.

The anniversary commemorates the establishment of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Mexica, a group also known as the Aztecs, who settled in the Valley of Mexico in 1325.

As recorded by early Spanish chroniclers, Mexica elders told of a divine sign from their patron god Huitzilopochtli: an eagle on a cactus, signaling where to settle. That place became Tenochtitlan, the center of Aztec civilization and the site of today’s Mexico City.

That symbol was later recorded in the Codex Mendoza, which contained historical accounts of the Aztec empire. It became central to Mexican identity and appears today on the national flag.

“Mexico was not born with the arrival of the Spanish; Mexico was born much earlier with the great civilizations,” said President Claudia Sheinbaum in a speech in which she urged the eradication of the racism that still persists in the country.

Tenochtitlan began as a village on an island in a lake ringed by volcanic peaks. But historians say many other details that have come down in history are based heavily on legend, and that the exact founding date is unknown.

By the time the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, they were awed by a city filled with palaces, bridges, canals and bustling trade, according to Spanish chronicler and conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo.

Historian Miguel Pastrana of the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Historic Investigations Institute, an expert on Tenochtitlan, said the weekend’s festivities are “political and civic" and do not reflect the latest historical research.

The historical record describes the Mexica as a people who migrated from a place called Aztlan, supposedly an island whose exact location remains unknown. They knew how to fish, gather aquatic plants and hunt birds, as well as build dams, and they tried to settle in several places before arriving in the Valley of Mexico.

The main island in the lake was already populated by the Tepaneca people, but they allowed the Mexica to settle there in exchange for tribute payments and other services, Pastrana said.

Little by little, the Mexica’s power grew. They were strong warriors and commercially prosperous, and they were effective at making alliances with other peoples.

Tenochtitlan became a great city at the center of an empire until the Spanish conquered it in 1521.

An artist in Indigenous clothing performs marking the 700th anniversary of the founding of Tenochtitlan, known today as Mexico City, in the capital's main square, the Zocalo, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

A dancer dressed in Indigenous clothing blows on a conch shell marking the 700th anniversary of the founding of Tenochtitlan, known today as Mexico City, in the capital's main square, the Zocalo, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Dancers in Indigenous clothing perform marking the 700th anniversary of the founding of Tenochtitlan, known today as Mexico City, in the capital's main square, the Zocalo, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Dancers in Indigenous clothing perform marking the 700th anniversary of the founding of Tenochtitlan, known today as Mexico City, in the capital's main square, the Zocalo, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Dancers dressed in Indigenous clothing perform marking the 700th anniversary of the founding of Tenochtitlan, known today as Mexico City, in the capital's main square, the Zocalo, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Dancers dressed in Indigenous clothing, backdropped by an image of Aztec goddess Tlaltecuhtli, gather to mark the 700th anniversary of the founding of Tenochtitlan, known today as Mexico City, in the capital's main square, the Zocalo, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Mexica dancers burn incense marking the 700th anniversary of the founding of Tenochtitlan, known today as Mexico City, in the capital's main square, the Zocalo, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

A dancer in Indigenous clothing performs marking the 700th anniversary of the founding of Tenochtitlan, known today as Mexico City, in the capital's main square, the Zocalo, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

An artist in Indigenous clothing performs marking the 700th anniversary of the founding of Tenochtitlan, known today as Mexico City, in the capital's main square, the Zocalo, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

A dancer dressed in Indigenous clothing blows on a conch shell marking the 700th anniversary of the founding of Tenochtitlan, known today as Mexico City, in the capital's main square, the Zocalo, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Dancers in Indigenous clothing perform marking the 700th anniversary of the founding of Tenochtitlan, known today as Mexico City, in the capital's main square, the Zocalo, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Dancers in Indigenous clothing perform marking the 700th anniversary of the founding of Tenochtitlan, known today as Mexico City, in the capital's main square, the Zocalo, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Dancers dressed in Indigenous clothing perform marking the 700th anniversary of the founding of Tenochtitlan, known today as Mexico City, in the capital's main square, the Zocalo, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez on Thursday asked lawmakers to approve reforms to the oil industry that would open the doors to greater foreign investment during her first state of the union speech less than two weeks after its longtime leader was toppled by the United States.

Rodríguez, who has been under pressure by the Trump administration to fall in line with its vision for the oil-rich nation, said sales of Venezuelan oil would go to bolster crisis-stricken health services, economic development and other infrastructure projects.

She outlined a distinct vision for the future, straying from her predecessors, who have long railed against American intervention in Venezeula. “Let us not be afraid of diplomacy” with the U.S., said Rodriguez, the former vice president who must now navigate competing pressures from the Trump administration and a government loyal to former President Nicolás Maduro.

The speech, which was broadcast on a delay in Venezuela, came one day after Rodríguez said her government would continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro in what she described as “a new political moment” since his ouster.

On Thursday, Trump met at the White House with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro. But in endorsing Rodríguez, who served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, Trump has sidelined Machado.

Rodríguez, who had a call with Trump earlier this week, said Wednesday evening on state television that her government would use “every dollar” earned from oil sales to overhaul the nation’s public health care system. Hospitals and other health care facilities across the country have long been crumbling, and patients are asked to provide practically all supplies needed for their care, from syringes to surgical screws.

The acting president must walk a tightrope, balancing pressures from both Washington and top Venezuelan officials who hold sway over Venezuela's security forces and strongly oppose the U.S. Her recent public speeches reflect those tensions — vacillating from conciliatory calls for cooperation with the U.S., to defiant rants echoing the anti-imperialist rhetoric of her toppled predecessor.

American authorities have long railed against a government they describe as a “dictatorship,” while Venezuela’s government has built a powerful populist ethos sharply opposed to U.S. meddling in its affairs.

For the foreseeable future, Rodríguez's government has been effectively relieved of having to hold elections. That's because when Venezuela’s high court granted Rodríguez presidential powers on an acting basis, it cited a provision of the constitution that allows the vice president to take over for a renewable period of 90 days.

Trump enlisted Rodríguez to help secure U.S. control over Venezuela’s oil sales despite sanctioning her for human rights violations during his first term. To ensure she does his bidding, Trump threatened Rodríguez earlier this month with a “situation probably worse than Maduro.”

Maduro, who is being held in a Brooklyn jail, has pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking charges.

Before Rodríguez’s speech on Thursday, a group of government supporters was allowed into the presidential palace, where they chanted for Maduro, who the government insists remains the country’s president. “Maduro, resist, the people are rising,” they shouted.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez makes a statement to the press at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez, center, smiles flanked by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, right, and National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez after making a statement to the press at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)