La Antigua Veracruz: the Rubicon of Cortez

Antigua is the back of modern Veracruz. It is not touched by the golden wand of tourism, but the mixing of Mexico today began to take shape on its shores, where nearly five centuries ago began the great adventure of Hernán Cortés, who decided to sink their ships there, not burn, to close any possibility of return and thus put towards the great Moctezuma Aztec Court.
Veracruz from San Juan de Ulua

The trip

Antigua is the back of modern Veracruz. It is not touched by the golden wand of tourism, but the mixing of Mexico today began to take shape on its shores, where nearly five centuries ago began the great adventure of Hernán Cortés, who decided to sink their ships, not burn, to ward off any possibility of return and thus lay towards the great Moctezuma Aztec Court.

It was a time, sixteenth century that, in which a handful of Spanish had the courage to venture into the Dark Sea, our Atlantic Ocean, those deep waters of anyone returning, to explore unknown lands and open new routes in the heart of distant countries. If there is a feat that deserves the name is, certainly, the conquest of Mexico, the subjugation of the Aztec Empire by Hernán Cortés. And if the question is to look on Mexican soil ghosts of history, Nowhere more evocative than the old Villa Rica de la Veracruz, the first city founded by Cortes and the starting point of his formidable epic.

Few travelers today are close to Antigua, that rumination his past along the Gulf of Mexico. Just a few kilometers is Veracruz, where the Spanish moved the first settlement, City sones jarochos, animadísimas terraces of the socket and the pier where sailors from the ships piropean to strut their chamaconas that world hunger. Why waste time approaching the old Veracruz? But for the visitor in which nestles a minimum interest in history is a must.

Are witnesses of that landing of the Good Friday 1519, when he founded the Villa Rica, Antigua current, but do not speak. A huge ceiba and a heavy iron chain such as forgetting to drag this little town. Leaving the car in the socket, the town square, you have to walk a few minutes to be face to face with the place, according to tradition, Cortez tied his fleet. And will you believe, but the traveler who is thousands of miles to sniff the scent of history is always accompanied by legends, as necessary to feed the myths. The bank has retired 50 meters with respect to the Spanish scenario contemplated, as if to pay homage to the old ceiba branches due and enigmatic symbolism.

The foundation of the town in 1519

Bernal Diaz del Castillo was one of those 400 men who accompanied Hernán Cortés and his "True History of the Conquest of New Spain" put on record that crucial moment in the adventure Cortesian. "We agreed to found the Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz in about half a league from the village plains, questaba as strength, that said Quiaviztlan, and plotted church and square and shipyards and all that suited for villa ". Cortes pulled the shoulder to lead by example and "began to make the first land to hills and rocks and deepen the foundations". That ancient Totonac village, Quiahuitzlan, No trace, but this singular tree marks the place where the original anchorage.

The bank has retired 50 meters with respect to the Spanish scenario contemplated, as if to pay homage to the old ceiba branches due and enigmatic symbolism.

Thus was born a rudimentary suspension bridge connecting the two banks of the river mouth, not advisable for those who suffer from vertigo-, from where there is a great view of the estuary, the traveler evoking the arrival of Spanish ships. Who has not ever heard that Cortes burned his ships on the Mexican coast? The phrase, even, has joined the popular tradition as synonymous go all out in pursuit of a goal. The reality is that Cortes burned his ships never, as attested by several writers of the time. He just disable them, leaving them stranded, to prevent disgruntled soldiers regresasen to Cuba to inform the governor Diego Velázquez, enemy of the conqueror, their intentions to enter without permission in the domain of the Aztec Empire. It was his particular Rubicon. Francisco Lopez de Gomara, chaplain of Cortes, learned from his mouth what happened and so reflected in his chronicle of the conquest of Mexico: "Determined, as, to break, negotiated with some masters for his ships secretly barrenasen, so that they can be sunk without exhausting or cover ". This was done.

The Chapel of the Rosary

Next to the square rectangular you can visit the house where he lived before undertaking Cortés toward Tenochtitlan, the current federal capital. Restored several times, left standing only a few moldy walls resting at the foot of a huge fig tree. A few meters from the entrance, a sign indicates the location of the hotel "La Malinche", the Indian who became the lover of Cortez and in one of his best allies, assuming the role of the Castilian Nahuatl translator during the progress of the expedition to meet the emperor Moctezuma. In return for this colaboracionismo, his countrymen designated by the term malinchismo the most reprehensible of betrayal, in one country, on the other hand, lavish on them.

Just beyond are the old stables where the conquerors kept animals that surprised the indigenous, convinced that horse and rider were the same person. His shabby appearance obliges, again, to make an act of faith. What seems certain is that the room was used more than 300 years after the conquest by General Santa Anna, responsible for which Mexico ceded in 1848 U.S. bidders to half its territory, including Texas, New Mexico and New California.

The socket also excels church Good Traveler, not to be confused with the Chapel of the Rosary, the first built by the Spanish in Mexican lands. To reach this white church with a single nave and three small bells have to wander around 300 meters from the village. In its rudimentary walls held the first Mass in the ancient Aztecs domains, enough to offset the anniversary trip to Antigua.

Andre Breton and it snapped at his face when the Mexicans came to give a lecture on surrealism. "What do you want me to tell? Surrealism is you ", simply said. Antigua is a good proof of that accurate diagnosis. At the base of the first town founded by Hernán Cortés stands a bust of… Benito Juarez, the first Indian to win the presidency of the nation. And is that as the Nobel Prize atinara Octavio Paz, the former New Spain has a pending: reconciled with its past half. "The conqueror said- must be returned to the place that belongs to all its grandeur and all its flaws: to History ". Well, that. Hands.

Postscript: VaP. want to thank Mexico Tourism in Spain your kind assistance provided by photographs.

The road

Iberia (www.iberia.es) and Aeromexico (www.aeromexico.com) Direct flights from Madrid to Mexico City. From the capital can be reached in an internal flight Veracruz, by train or by road (405 km). Buses depart from the CAPO, the Central Bus Passengers East (Salvador Diaz Miron 1698).

A table set

In nearby Veracruz is essential to visit the Gran Café del Portal (Independence, 105), to which everyone refers to as "The Parish". Is, certainly, the most popular of the city, a "Café Gijón" jarocho. To the rhythm of a marimba, everyone observes and is observed from fifty tables spread around the room. You have to try the fish: mojarra or cucumite to Veracruz, best when accompanied by guacamole salad and a beer Superior. No getting up from a chair without asking for a "dairy", the coffee served in a tall glass that happens to be the specialty of the house. Al waiter warns hitting the container with spoon.

A nap

Fiesta Americana (Manuel Avila Camacho Boulevard and Cod). In the new part of port, across the street from the Marina. Away from the bustle of the socket and the revelry of Mariachi Los Portales.

Highly Recommended

In modern Veracruz have to shop around the old fort of San Juan de Ulua, built by the Spanish, where the last Spanish flag hauled down in Mexico in November 1825. It was a prison until 1915, one of the most terrible of the country, and was locked in their cells Benito Juárez himself in 1853. From the port you can see Island of Sacrifices, named by the expedition of a predecessor of Cortez, Juan de Grijalva, who visited in 1518, to find remains of human sacrifices.
A book about the conquest impresdindible "True History of the Conquest of New Spain", Bernal Diaz del Castillo, one of the soldiers who accompanied Cortés on his adventure. Among the abundant literature on the conqueror, Recommended VaP. interesting "Hernán Cortés. The conqueror of the impossible ", Bartholomew Bennassar, published in Today's Editorial.

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