An Aztec False Flag

Kurly Tlapoyawa
12 min readOct 3, 2024

Back in the day when I was a young man living in Mexico City, I purchased a paperback book on the Zocalo that would have a huge influence on me. The book was called “Juicio A España” and it was written by a man named Antonio Xokonochtletl Gomora. And while I now know that its contents are largely a hodge-podge of pseudohistorical nationalist rhetoric, its anti-establishment and pro-Indigenous stance strongly resonated with me. And in many ways, the information in this book helped lead me down the path of legitimate Archaeology and ethnohistory.

My well-worn personal copy of “Juicio a España” by Xokonochtletl

I must have read and re-read this book a dozen times. It fed into my own sense of Indigenous pride with its decidedly anti-spanish narrative, but it was the image featured on page 135 that struck me the most.

The top of the page reads:

“Explicacion de la VERDADERA BANDERA MEXICANA!! Dicha por el excelente historiador mexicanista Dr. Ignacio Romero Vargas Iturbide”

Or in English:

“Explanation of the TRUE MEXICAN FLAG!! Told by the excellent Mexican historian Dr. Ignacio Romero Vargas Iturbide”

And emblazoned underneath, the image of what many call The “True Mexica Banner,” The Banner of Kwitlawak,” or simply “the Panketzalli” or “Precious banner.”

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Kurly Tlapoyawa

(Chicano/Nawa/Mazewalli) Archaeologist, filmmaker, and founder of the Chimalli institute of Mesoamerican Arts. Co-host of the Tales From Aztlantis podcast.