Mexico's Oldest Port — Son Jarocho, the Gran Café de la Parroquia, and the First Spanish Settlement on the American Mainland
Veracruz was the first permanent Spanish settlement on the American mainland, founded by Hernán Cortés in 1519, and it remained the primary gateway between Spain and New Spain for three centuries. The fortified island of San Juan de Ulúa — one of the largest Spanish colonial fortresses in the Americas — guards the harbour. The city's African heritage is woven into son jarocho music and the zapateado dance style unique to the Sotavento region, performed with particular energy at the Zócalo's nightly danzón sessions. Gran Café de la Parroquia, serving its famous glass café lechero since 1808, i…
Veracruz was the hinge of the Spanish colonial world — the port through which the silver of Potosí and Zacatecas flowed to Spain, and through which enslaved Africans arrived to New Spain, making it the birthplace of Mexico's Afro-descendant Jarocho culture. The city was sacked by pirates, occupied by the French in the Pastry War of 1838, and bombarded by the United States in 1847 and again in 1914. That cumulative experience of siege and resistance is embedded in the city's identity — Veracruz calls itself 'la ciudad heroica,' the heroic city.