Veracruz, where Cortés founded the first Spanish town in Mexico, is also the Olmec heartland
Long before Hernán Cortés landed in 1519, the Gulf coast of Veracruz was home to the Olmecs, whose colossal stone heads date from a civilisation that peaked some 2,600 years ago. The port he founded became New Spain's gateway to Europe, and the state is often called the birthplace of Mexico's mestizo identity.
Veracruz is one of Mexico's 31 states, stretching along much of the Gulf of Mexico between Tamaulipas and Tabasco, with 212 municipalities and its capital at Xalapa. Its full name honours both the port and Ignacio de la Llave, a mid-19th-century governor. Four Indigenous peoples dominated before the conquest: Huastecs and Otomis in the north, Totonacs in the centre-north and Olmecs in the south, around the Coatzacoalcos River, where San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán was their main ceremonial centre.
The Totonacs, still a distinct people today, farmed maize, beans, chillies and squash in a land where vanilla grows wild, and built the great site of El Tajín near Papantla; their clay figures often show smiling faces. In the 15th and early 16th centuries the Aztecs carved much of the region into tribute provinces. That made the Totonacs willing allies for the Spanish: their ruler Tlacochcalcatl offered Cortés 50,000 warriors to march on Tenochtitlan.
Cortés founded Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, whose name promises a wealthy settlement of the True Cross, on May 18, 1519, using it to throw off the authority of Cuba's governor and answer directly to the Crown. In 1523 Charles I granted the town a coat of arms, which still underlies the state seal. Franciscan friars arrived in 1524 and walked barefoot to the capital. For centuries the port handled New Spain's silver and cochineal dye, along with chocolate, vanilla and chillies, while Córdoba, Orizaba and Xalapa grew up to guard the road inland, and Xalapa hosted its first trade fair in 1720.
Disease brought by the conquerors devastated the Indigenous population, and Spain shipped in between 500,000 and 1,000,000 enslaved West Africans to Mexico from 1535 to 1767; many escaped and rebelled, notably around Orizaba. Rugged northern terrain helped Totonac and Huastec culture survive. Veracruz also saw the end of Spanish rule: in 1824 royalist troops made their final stand at the port and San Juan de Ulúa, the fortress on the very spot of Cortés's landing three centuries before.
Source: Veracruz
