The Mexican collective imagination has given Tláloc a special place within national pop culture. “Tláloc is all the rage,” has been a popular phrase on social media in recent days. This pre-Hispanic god has been a topic of conversation due to the storms that have plagued Mexico City in recent weeks.
The images of Tláloc that made him a trend are endless. Some show him riding on a cloud, wearing dark glasses and a mocking smile. Thousands of people share them, laugh, and identify with them. On the damp walls of Iztapalapa and Tlatelolco, another Tláloc appears: one graffitied, with neon eyes, or bat wings.
And at the craft markets, he can be seen on T-shirts, flower pots, pins, or clay figures. Tláloc is in fashion, and it’s not just a random phrase: it’s a phenomenon that intersects climate, memory, and urban culture.
Tláloc Is in Fashion
Every rainy season in Mexico City seems to revive devotion—and sarcasm—toward this ancient god. Beyond floods or jammed traffic lights, Tláloc has become a recurring figure in digital discourse. We see him on TikTok, on X (formerly Twitter), on Instagram: he’s invoked with memes, revered with humor, and turned into a symbol of the capital’s patience.
But his popularity isn’t limited to the virtual realm. Tláloc is on the streets, in everyday conversation, and in the products sold in markets. Something has brought him back to the center of public conversation, as if the rain god had literally decided to make a comeback.
The Aztec God Who Refuses to Disappear
Tláloc was one of the most important deities in the Aztec pantheon. He was depicted with large, round eyes and prominent fangs and was considered the lord of rain, lightning, and fertility. Although he was feared for his storms and illnesses, he was also venerated for his ability to bring life.
His temple stood in the Templo Mayor, next to that of Huitzilopochtli, which reveals his status. And although the passage of time has displaced him from everyday worship, his image persists: from the stone colossus that still rests at the entrance of the National Museum of Anthropology to the reinterpretations that now place him in the collective imagination with a more contemporary feel.
Anyone who has walked the streets of the capital knows that Tláloc no longer lives only in codices. On the walls of neighborhoods like Tláhuac, Xochimilco, and Doctores, his face is reinvented by urban artists who blend it with elements of pop culture, environmental activism, and social criticism.
In some murals, he is seen throwing water on dried cacti; in others, his gaze merges with digital symbols. Tláloc is a canvas for new generations of creators who see in him something more than a god, considering him a symbol of identity, resistance, and connection with the ancestral.
Tláloc is also sold: crafts, stickers, and pop culture
The Tláloc craze has also taken over Mexican pop culture. At craft fairs in Coyoacán or San Ángel, it’s not uncommon to find ceramic figures, candles decorated with his face, or textiles embroidered with his silhouette. Artisans have interpreted his iconography to create pieces that blend the pre-Hispanic with the contemporary.
In independent design stores, especially those focused on Mexican graphics or alternative culture, Tláloc appears on stickers, tote bags, notebooks, and even flowerpots shaped like his head. He is a cultural product, but also a visual statement: a way to carry his ancestral heritage with style.
Where to buy Tláloc items?
Citadel Market: glasses, mugs, sculptures, clay figures, and textiles with Tláloc’s face.
Trama Tienda: T-shirts and jackets with graphic designs inspired by pre-Hispanic deities.
Coatlicue Arte – Xolito Mío: sculptures, mini altars, candles, and decorative objects with a Mexica aesthetic.
These are some of the places where you can find a wide range of products representing the pre-Hispanic god. Some Facebook Marketplace users also offer some options.
Although their approach is alternative, you can also find some other options at the Tianguis Cultural del Chopo. Some stalls sell stickers, pins, and clothing with designs of Tlaloc and other Mexica gods.
Tlaloc in Pop Culture
Social media has made Tlaloc a viral figure. His presence in memes responds to a need to explain everything with humor, but also as a way to redefine the past. Tlaloc appears to justify the June floods, to mock the traffic chaos, but also to remind us that there was a time when the gods lived in the weather, and that rain wasn’t an inconvenience, but a message.
Some users compare him to vengeful entities; others turn him into a superhero of the season. And although the tone is often playful, the constant repetition of his figure shows that Tlaloc never left: he was just waiting for the right moment to return.
An ancestral figure with a contemporary presence
Tlaloc is in fashion. The heavy skies, the graffitied street signs, the designer markets, and Instagram feeds all speak for themselves. But beyond fashion, his return signals a desire to return to our own, to reconcile with nature, and to give meaning to the chaotic through ancient symbols.
Tlaloc lives on in our memory, in popular aesthetics, in urban art, in consumerism, in a city that breathes through storms.
Source: mexicodesconocido
