Fertility of the soil. For the blood shed during Independence. According to the legend, the Aztecs in search of their promised land, were told by their god Huitzilopochtli, that when they would find the eagle devouring a serpent on a nopal cactus treee, they were to settle down in that place and found Tenochtitlan, which is today Mexico City. Religion Roman Catholicism is the faith of more than 90 percent of the people. Mexico's long tradition of official anticlericalism ended in 1991 with the passage of constitutional changes granting legal status to religious institutions and allowing parochial schools.
Protestants represent a small but growing minority in Mexico.
The prevailing and official language is Spanish, which is spoken by the great majority of the population. Other major dialects include Maya, spoken in the Yucat n Peninsula, and Otom', common in central Mexico. Successive governments have instituted educational programs to teach Spanish to all of the Indians.