Villa Rica: the beginning of the epic of Hernán Cortés

The Ford Triton leads to Antigua Veracruz zebu crosses pastures and donkeys tied to trees with no owner in sight. The first city founded by Hernan Cortes in New Spain is the most impressive place I have visited so far in Mexico, I guess its historic aura. By Ricardo Coarasa.
Christ Church Bon Voyage

The Ford Triton leads to Antigua Veracruz zebu crosses pastures and donkeys tied to trees with no owner in sight. The first city founded by Hernan Cortes in New Spain is the most impressive place I have visited so far in Mexico, I guess its historic aura. Here the Spanish landed in 1519 and built their first settlement (actually, on a hillside near the village disappeared Quiahuiztlan Totonaca). The weight of centuries Veracruz has overwhelmed the primal, now converted into a quiet municipality indifferent to the past that distinguishes it as the first city founded by the conquistadors in Mexico.

There remains, is that, which is considered the home of Cortez, only a few brick walls twinned with a huge banyan tree wiry. It's hard to tell who supports who. The inhabited or not Cortés, course was used by the first conquerors, presumably to clear the administrative tasks of the emerging New Spain. His battered and dark walls, wrapped in the darkness, evoke a moment in the birth of modern Mexico that Mexicans themselves, what about the Spanish, seem to have turned its back. The first still turn against the conquest and the latter prefer to ashamed of it. Perhaps it is time to pull over historical grudges and to support complex, once and for all politically correct with no frills, Mexico today is the fruit, like in the like, that miscegenation. If Montezuma had continued to reign at will or the Spanish exterminated the vanquished would not light a mestizo society, Mexico would now be different or, perhaps, would not be.

The night is upon us, further silencing the voices of the past, reverberating in every corner of the old anchorage of La Antigua. In the dark, visited the church of the good traveler and the old stables built by the soldiers of Cortez, used over 300 years later by the infamous General Santa Anna, the president who has come to the sad history of Mexico for having delivered 1848 the hated Yankee neighbor Texas, New Mexico and New California, half the country's territory.

Walking into the estuary that opens into the Gulf of Mexico, where they entered the ships of Cortez, a giant ceiba tree marks the spot where, allegedly, docked ships

The date the story takes place, inevitably, dark. Trips, much that we plan, always surprise, and that is part of its charm. But even the darkness can extricate the emotion of the moment. Walking into the estuary that opens into the Gulf of Mexico, where they entered the ships of Cortez, a giant ceiba tree marks the spot where, allegedly, docked ships. A heavy chain that sleeps at the foot of the tree grow tired of it passes for sailors left their ships to dock at the shore. I'd like to believe so. To hold on to that chain, Now that all is gloom, as an act of faith, as finding that, in fact, I'm walking on the same land Mexican Cortes first set foot on for almost five centuries.

We approach the river. I've regressed these 500 years in time and I can easily imagine the solemn moment, the arrival of the ships of Cortez for the estuary and the joy of the crew. Now, the waters have withdrawn fifty meters and the runway has left the ceiba in no man's land, which only increases the symbolism that the halo, subscriber or not the legend. A suspension bridge connecting the two shores, an excellent metaphor of the crossroads of the conqueror. It is a balcony that invites the traveler to reverie and one of those moments that justifies itself on a long journey.

Not far from where we are, Cortes passed the Rubicon of conquest disabling its fleet, that was stranded on the sands of the newly created Villa Rica, and assumed the challenge of moving at all costs to the enigmatic Tenochtitlan, where did everything possible Montezuma-Cortez showering gifts while promoting ambushes against the Spanish, to prevent the inevitable clash of civilizations.

And it is clear: although some insist on the conquering Extremadura "burned" their vessels, the accounts of chroniclers leave no doubt about the fate of the ships: the troops took care of disable them, leaving them stranded on the coast. Why? The intent of the conqueror of Tenochtitlan and get face to face with Montezuma, Emperor of the Aztecs, was irrepressible. Much of his men, especially those who had not left anything in Cuba and distrusted all their fortunes to the fortune they could do on this trip, did not want to hear about returning to the island. But not everyone was for the work. The faction loyal to Diego Velázquez, governor of the island Fernandina, did everything in his power to return, because the governor had given them permission to settle.

Cortés and faced his Rubicon: turn back, with the assurance that Velazquez would soon sponsor an expedition to take possession on behalf of the conquered lands, or persevere in the effort while allowing the return of disgruntled. The founding of the Villa Rica de la Veracruz on Good Friday 1519 and the marking of vessels prevents any return, meaning the first foundation of the future conquest of Mexico. You can still visit, a 300 meters from the village, The first chapel was founded in New Spain, where the first Mass was celebrated in the domains of the Aztec Empire. Rarely have I seen so much history to miss. In this, Ancient Veracruz is unrivaled.

Notify new comments
Notify
guest

1 Commentary
Online comments
See all comments
Here's the way0
You have not added products yet.
Continue browsing
0