Mexica

Huitzilopochtli

Hummingbird of the Left

Born fully armed from Coatlicue on Coatepec, the Serpent Mountain, after his sister Coyolxauhqui and the four hundred southern stars came to kill their mother. Huitzilopochtli dismembered Coyolxauhqui and threw her down the pyramid — the scene carved on the Templo Mayor's Coyolxauhqui Stone. He is the tribal god who led the Mexica to the lake where an eagle stood on a nopal, and the sun that must be fed so it will rise.

Huitzillin is the hummingbird: always in motion, drinking from the flower's heart, too fierce for its size. Fallen warriors escort the sun, then return as this bird. The name we took — Mexi — is this god. Why the hummingbird.