The Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle () forms part of the Mexican Honors System and is the highest Mexican order awarded to foreigners.
History It was created by decree on December 29, 1933, by President Abelardo L. Rodríguez as a reward to the services given to Mexico or humankind by foreigners. It corresponds to similar distinctions given to Mexican citizens such as the Condecoración Miguel Hidalgo or the Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor. It is given by the office of the foreign minister on the instructions of a Council established for this purpose headed by the President. Its naming is partially taken from the Imperial Order of the Mexican Eagle, which was created by Maximilian I of Mexico on January 1, 1865.
Design There is some design similarity of the order with the coat of arms of Mexico, particularly the golden eagle holding a rattlesnake, which is associated with the Aztec civilization.
Classes Since 2011 Since the reform of March 2011,Reform text (Spanish) the classes are : Collar ("Collar"), awarded to heads of state; Sash of Special Category ("Banda en Categoría Especial"), awarded to prime ministers and heads of government, hereditary princes(ses), consorts of heads of state, or to people whose category is tantamount to the previous; Sash ("Banda"), awarded to government ministers, secretaries, members of royal families, ambassadors, or individuals whose category is tantamount to the previous; Plaque ("Placa"), awarded to government undersecretaries, plenipotentiary ministers, consuls general, brigadier generals, rear admirals, as well to those whose category is tantamount to the previous; Venera (a type of insignia), awarded to ad hoc business representatives, colonels and lieutenant colonels, captains of a ship, equivalent servants of embassies in Mexico, as well to those whose category is tantamount to the previous; Insignia, awarded to ad interim business representatives and other members of diplomatic missions; captain, navy lieutenant, as well to those whose category is tantamount to the previous and to those cases the Council considers pertinent.
All grades except the collar may be awarded, at the Council's discretion, to distinguished foreigners.
Before 2011 Prior to the 2011 reform, the classes were, in descending order: Collar ("Collar"), awarded to heads of state; Grand Cross ("Cruz"), awarded to prime ministers and heads of government Sash ("Banda"), awarded to government ministers, secretaries and ambassadors Medal ("Medalla"), awarded to government undersecretaries, plenipotentiary ministers, as well to those whose category is tantamount to the previous; Plaque ("Placa"), awarded to ad hoc business representatives, colonels and lieutenant colonels, captains of a ship, equivalent servants of embassies in Mexico), as well to those whose category is tantamount to the previous; Venera (a type of insignia), awarded to ad interim business representatives and other members of diplomatic missions; Insignia proper, awarded at the Council's discretion; and Honorable Mention ("Mención Honorífica").
Notable recipients Royalty
Name Class Nationality Year Appointed Reference Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia Collar Ethiopian Empire 1954 Emperor Hirohito of Japan 1962 Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh 1964 King Rama IX of Thailand 1972 Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom 1973 Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester Sash; Sash of Special Category 1974; 2015 Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent Grand Cross 1964 Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran Collar Iran 1975 King Olav V of Norway Grand Cross King Juan Carlos I of Spain Collar Queen Sofía of Spain Grand Cross Emperor Akihito of Japan Collar King Albert II of Belgium Carnet Mondain, p. 2 ed. 2005 King Carl Gustaf XVI of Sweden 2004 Queen Silvia of Sweden Sash King Mohammed VI of Morocco Collar 2005 Queen Margrethe II of Denmark 2008 Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark Sash (2008); Sash of Special Category (2016) 2008; 2016 Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands Collar 2009 King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands Sash Queen Máxima of the Netherlands Felipe VI of Spain Sash (1996); Collar (2015) 1996; 2015 Queen Letizia of Spain Sash (2008); Sash of Special Category (2015) 2008; 2015 King Charles III of the United Kingdom Sash of Special Category 2015 Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom Sash Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester Frederik X of Denmark Sash of Special Category 2016 Queen Mary of Denmark Sash Prince Joachim of Denmark Princess Marie of Denmark Princess Benedikte of Denmark Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah Collar King Salman of Saudi Arabia
Presidents
Edvard Beneš – Collar (1935) Dwight David Eisenhower – Collar (1945) Chiang Kai-shek – Collar (1945) Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan – Collar (1954) Fulgencio Batista - Collar Juscelino Kubitschek – Collar Rafael Trujillo – Collar Charles de Gaulle – Collar Josip Broz Tito – Collar (1963) Julius Nyerere – Collar (1975) Todor Zhivkov Fidel Castro – Collar (1988) Lennart Meri – Collar (1995) Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – Collar (2007) Michelle Bachelet – Collar (2007) Nelson Mandela – Sash (2010) Álvaro Colom – Collar (2011) Mauricio Funes – Collar (2011) Juan Manuel Santos – Collar (2011) José Mujica – Collar (2014) Dilma Rousseff – Collar (2015) Otto Pérez Molina – Collar (2015) Mauricio Macri – Collar (2016) Sergio Mattarella – Collar (2016) Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa – Collar (2017) Pratibha Patil – Sash of Special Category (2018) Manuel Luis Quezon – Collar Miguel Díaz-Canel – Collar (2023)
Politicians
Johannes Leimena Edmond Leburton Alexandra Kollontai – Sash (1944) Henry Harley Arnold – Collar (1945) Dr. Jože Brilej – Sash (1950s) Takeo Miki – Sash (1967) Sir Edward Heath (1994) Bernardo Arévalo (1995) Yves Ducharme – Venera (2006) Mark Shurtleff, Utah Attorney General – Plaque (2006) Lisa Shoman – Sash (2008) Ted Kennedy – Sash (2008) José Manuel García-Margallo (2015) Benoît Hamon Eva Perón (1951) David Dreier (2017) Jared Kushner – Sash (2018)
Qiu Xiaoqi - Sash (2019)
Jean-Yves Le Drian – Sash (2021)
Isabel Allende Bussi – Insignia (2023)
Other
Walt Disney (1943) Spencer Atkinson (1946) Norman Borlaug (1970) Nettie Lee Benson (1979) Nigel Davies (1980) Edward Hidalgo (1980) Diana Kennedy (1981) Gabriel García Márquez (1982) Claudio Arrau (1982) Plácido Domingo – (1985) W. Michael Mathes (1985) Cesar Chavez (1990) Merle Greene Robertson (1993) Dr. Donald Winkelmann (1994) Yuri Knorozov (1995) Hector P. Garcia (1998) Satish Gujral – Insignia proper Charles Butt – (2001) Melinda Gates – Insignia proper (2007) Anne d'Harnoncourt – Insignia proper (2007) Rigoberta Menchú – Insignia proper (2010) Mario Vargas Llosa (2011) Amartya Sen (2011) Bono – Insignia proper (2012) Takashi Yamanouchi (2013) Ralph RoederObituary: The New York Times, 21 February 1970 Lady Susan Hussey (2015) Dolores Huerta (2015) Richard W. Fisher – Badge (2015) Stuart Gulliver (2017) Roderic Ai Camp (2017) Rick Bayless – Insignia (2017)
Roberta S. Jacobson (2018) Catherine Bréchignac (2018)
Stephen A. Schwarzman – Plaque (2018) Henry Kravis – Plaque (2018)
– Plaque (2021)
List by class
Collar Akihito Bhumibol Adulyadej Michelle Bachelet Beatrix of the Netherlands Josip Broz Tito Carl XVI Gustaf Fidel Castro Edvard Beneš Dwight D. Eisenhower Elizabeth II Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Mauricio Funes Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester Haile Selassie Henryk Jabłoński Juan Carlos I of Spain Juscelino Kubitschek Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Mauricio Macri Margrethe II of Denmark Mohammed VI of Morocco Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Salman of Saudi Arabia Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Grand Cross / Sash of Special Category Henry H. Arnold Princess Benedikte of Denmark Jože Brilej Maria Cavaco Silva Armand De Decker Guillermo Fernández de Soto Jean Gol Peter Hope (diplomat) Thanat Khoman Princess Lalla Hasna of Morocco Edmond Leburton Mahathir Mohamad Princess Margriet of the Netherlands Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark Prince Moulay Rachid of Morocco Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb Olav V of Norway Jacques van Ypersele de Strihou Ra'ad bin Zeid Suharto Pratibha Patil Sash Infante Carlos, Duke of Calabria Charles, Prince of Wales Infanta Cristina of Spain Carlos Echeverri Cortés Felipe VI of Spain Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark Princess Irene of the Netherlands Ted Kennedy Alexandra Kollontai Queen Letizia of Spain Nelson Mandela Queen Máxima of the Netherlands Takeo Miki Hirofumi Nakasone Sadako Ogata Pietro Parolin Prince Sahle Selassie Lisa Shoman Queen Sofía of Spain Plaque Bill Gates Charles E. Wilhelm Alan Yarrow Insignia David Brading Melinda Gates Satish Gujral Anne d'Harnoncourt Alan Knight (historian) Other or unknown classes Claudio Arrau Jack Austin (politician) Rick Bayless Nettie Lee Benson Elizabeth Hill Boone David Brading Jože Brilej Charles Butt David Carrasco Maria Cavaco Silva Alfredo Chiaradía Francesco Cossiga Nigel Davies (historian) Michel Descombey Plácido Domingo Yves Ducharme Elżbieta Dzikowska Luis Echeverría Trevor Eyton Jean-Louis Georgelin Nadine Gordimer John Greenslade António Guterres Jan Hendrix Edward Hidalgo Carla Anderson Hills Alfred Wilkinson Johnson Michael Kaiser Friedrich Katz Diana Kennedy Jean-Pierre Kingsley Nobusuke Kishi Yuri Knorozov Thomas Krens Ernest Krogh-Hansen George Kubler Jared Kushner Luis Leal (writer) Fred Martinez W. Michael Mathes Helmut Maucher José Carlos Millás Million Dollar Theater Paula Marcela Moreno Zapata Julius Nyerere Óscar Osorio Benoît Puga Mariano Rajoy Ann Richards Nelson Rockefeller Rodman Rockefeller Albert Sabin Eisaku Satō Walter Schwimmer Edward Seaga David Shaltiel Lemuel C. Shepherd Jr. Innis P. Swift Hugh Thomas, Baron Thomas of Swynnerton J. Eric S. Thompson Mario Vargas Llosa Baldemar Velasquez William Wasson David J. Weber Eliot Weinberger Derry Weis Raul Yzaguirre Amartya Sen Tom Tollemache
Gallery
Additional sources Mexican Chamber of Deputies Olvera Ayes, David A. "La Orden Mexicana del Aguila Azteca – Apuntes para su Historia". Cuadernos del Cronista. México, 2011
References
External links Medals.org.uk Blasoneshispanos.com