There are cities in Mexico which are honored with titles in memory of their efforts in history to support the creation of the revolutionary independent state that was Mexico once upon a time. Veracruz is one such and it’s full title is as you see above “Heroica Veracruz” the heroic city of the true cross.
There is more than one fort in this heroic city and we weren’t able to see this little one as it was closed and naturally the big one was out of reach as we spent too long at the other sights. Silly us but Rusty was glad to be woken up by us after he spent a couple of hours napping in the back of the van. It’s not hot enough yet for air conditioning as the air is still quite cool despite the sun, but we put a fan aimed at his bed and he was happy to take a nap after his second walk of the day. One at the campground and the second around here before we dropped him off and walked to the museum.
Our first approaches to Veracruz from our campground up the road took us by surprise. Lonely Planet says Veracruz is industrial and gritty and maybe it is but we found a charming waterfront drive filled with middle class activities, dog walking, jogging and exercising. Not too gritty at all!
I even saw a Tesla negotiating the commute. Veracruz seems more like a modern industrial port city with some mild tourist aspirations than a gritty industrial city with no room for people like us. I find it rather interesting and then there is the history.
Veracruz has a long and warlike history it turns out. Webb Chiles it was who reminded me that Herman Cortez landed here and began his conquest of Mexico. And there he was in the Naval Museum’s display:
Veracruz was the last hold out of the Spanish in “New Spain” and the nascent Mexican Navy in 1823 helped lay siege to the last Spanish garrison in the fort we signally failed to visit. The Spanish hung in until 1825 hoping for relief from the Spanish Navy whose fleet got pushed back to Cuba by a fortuitous (for the Mexicans) hurricane, and Spain surrendered Mexico to the insurgents. Hence the title “Heroica” granted to the city.
Captain Pedro Sainz in a portrait depicting him as the sailor that kept the Spanish garrison bottled in the Ulua fortress in Veracruz.
The Naval Museum is extremely modern and has a gorgeous layout of displays from pre-Hispanic times through the 19th century, a turbulent time for Mexicos most important Caribbean port up to the present.
The displays didn’t fail to point out the importance of Veracruz in the war of 1846, pointing out Mexico lost 55% of its territory. An uncomfortable flash went through my mind thinking about Ukraine and Russia’s current land grab…Human history is a confusing morass of mixed motives and cruel ironies.
The displays are quite fascinating in their use of technology and the details displayed. A diorama of the conquistador era of exploration:
The piece of history that took me completely by surprise was the invasion of Veracruz in April 1914, by the United States! Who knew? It turns out some unarmed US sailors crossed into Mexican naval property in Tampico and were arrested. After their release and an apology from Mexico, President Wilson rather arbitrarily ordered a fleet of 44 ships to attack and take Veracruz. So they did as explained rather nicely in one electronic display.
The naval cadets in the building now housing the museum put up stiff resistance joined by citizens of the city (not Kyiv I should note but Veracruz) and were overrun in the end. The cadet barracks recreated in the actual building where the fight took place as recorded by a student diarist:
The US occupied Veracruz for seven months and did relations with the US no good at all. To me this whole fiasco with attendant loss of life seems bizarre and I got the strong feeling some leaders do not want to learn from history. Pictures of dead Mexican civilians in the streets were unnerving.
It was quite the walk through and it took far longer than we had intended. Hence no visit to the fort.
We ambled back towards our sleeping dog and Layne got us on another detour, before we even got there. 
We stumbled quite by accident on a display of tapestries in a folklore museum 
It turns out a local Mesoamerican tribe in a community called San Nicolas has developed these cotton tapestries as a way to raise money to supplement their agricultural income.
According to the notes only in Spanish the designs are based on pictographs, rock paintings made by the tribe’s ancestors.
And they have developed a particular sewing technique that hides all the stitches.
The closer I looked the more astounded I was.
Pure chance we came across them! Meanwhile there is a Ram dealer in town so we decided now was the moment to organize an oil change for our Promaster. The price was high, $190 and no credit cards but I wanted the certainty of getting such a basic job done right. We had our last oil change at the Walmart in Del Rio for $70 and we’ve done 4800 miles since then. Veracruz is such a big city this seemed like as good a spot as any and the oil change will take us back to the land of cheap changes at drive through facilities.
They checked the light bulbs and brakes and took care of us in a couple of hours and finished up by washing the van! Great service!
We sat outside at first because we didn’t want to inflict Rusty on nervous Mexican clients.
But they insisted we take a seat in the air conditioned waiting room. Then Layne saw a guy on a motorcycle delivering food to the employees and we ordered barbecued chicken and grilled steak lunches (Rusty got his favorite treat we carry aboard GANNET2). Mexico has a solution for everything!
We even got a hand from a parking control officer who helped us with the meter which was surprisingly hard to read in the bright sunlight. You know what they tell you about Mexico? Don’t believe them, people are kind and helpful everywhere. We are going to put Mexico to the test visiting Chiapas next. Very dangerous they say. I’m only afraid we may not be able to resist crossing into Guatemala! But we have to go back to the States this summer.
