Which Reminds Me

Yes, I do remember that when I was attending third grade in Mexico, our teacher explained to us the contents of the Mexican flag, which has mainly an eagle with a snake in its beak. This eagle vision was a sign to the Aztec Indians who founded Mexico City that the lake and island were the appropriate site selection. Of course, that was long before the Spaniards arrived. And anyway, it is not exactly a bald eagle, more of a Mexican type of eagle. But that doesn't make me a Mexican. I only lived there one year. And then we moved to El Salvador, where the contents of the Salvadoran flag were explained to us. The experiment of a United Central America in the 19th century was short-lived but the Salvadorans kept the flag, which features five hills that symbolize the five countries (not really provinces) of Central America. Even so, this doesn't make me a native. So why does the face of a Honduran president, Francisco Morazán, often appear on Salvadoran coins? Because he was also the president of the Federal Republic of Central America, at least for short time, until he was executed. The bullet holes in this story are somewhat distracting.