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Veracruz
As you journey west along the Gulf Coast, you will enter next the state of
Veracruz, the first Mexican region to fall to Spanish rule when Cortés arrived on
its shores. Today, the economy of this state, like Tabasco’s, focuses on the oil
industry. The state has more than one-fourth of Mexico’s petroleum reserves; it
supplies 17 percent of Mexico’s energy; and it has the nation’s second largest
generator and only nuclear power plant.
The discovery of oil has caused a population explosion in Veracruz. At the
beginning of the 20th century, only about one million people lived in this
state; now about 7 million inhabitants make this the third most populated state
in Mexico.
Veracruz’s fishing fleet is also the
largest in Mexico, and its oyster catch
is among the biggest in the country.
Agriculture and manufacturing are also
Mexican Facts and Figures
44
The castle of San Juan de Ulúa was built in
1528 to protect the harbor at Veracruz from
Caribbean pirates. Veracruz was the first
European settlement established on the
American mainland; today, it is Mexico’s most
important seaport.