"And when they saw the eagle perched on the cactus, when they saw it eating something, they did not see clearly what it was eating. Only when the eagle saw the Mexica did it bow its head low. And they saw the eagle from afar. When the Mexica saw this, they wept. They said: 'It is here! It is here that we shall settle! It is here that we shall keep and guard, await, and meet our subjects and our common people. And the name of this place? What shall it be called? It will be called Tenochtitlan.' And then the Mexica wept. They said: 'We have been worthy! We have been deserving! We have seen the sign!'"

Account of the founding of Tenochtitlan, from the Crónica Mexicáyotl, compiled by Fernando Alvarado Tezozomoc, c.1609. Tezozomoc was a grandson of the Aztec emperor Moctezuma I and recorded oral traditions and earlier indigenous sources about Mexica history.