In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Veracruz was invaded on different occasions by France and the United States; in the aftermath of the 1914 Tampico Affair, US troops occupied the city for seven months.

Having established the settlement of Villa Rica (Rich Village) on Good Friday, 22 April 1519, Cortés dedicated the place to the True Cross as an offering.

[16]: 102  The name Villa Rica (rich village) referred to the gold that was found here and Vera Cruz (True Cross) was added because the Cortés expedition landed on Good Friday, a Christian holy day.

[3] When Cortés and his soldiers abolished the Aztec despotism and elected a Justicia Mayor and a Capitán General, they created the first city council on the American continent.

[7] Each of the two yearly voyages of the Spanish treasure fleet to and from Spain were to gather at Veracruz stevedores, muleteers, navigators, sailors, contractors, merchants and civil servants.

In 1568 the Armada admiral Francisco Luján defeated the British pirates John Hawkins and Francis Drake on their attempt to take hold of Veracruz.

By the end of the 16th century, the Spanish had constructed roads to link Veracruz with other cities such as Córdoba, Orizaba, Puebla, Xalapa and Perote.

[12][13] This caused the city problems with pirates, prompting the construction of Fort San Juan de Ulúa on the island where Grijalva had landed in the mid-16th century.

[3] In 1600, when large-scale smuggling of goods took place to avoid customs officials,[13] the Spanish Crown ordered the settlement returned to its original site to cut down on that traffic.

Many of the buildings and institutions which form Veracruz's Historic Centre date from that time such as the cathedral (1731), the Military Hospital of San Carlos (1731) or modern water supply and sewerage systems.

In 1823, Spanish troops remaining at Fort San Juan de Ulúa fired on the newly independent Mexican city of Veracruz.

About five thousand prisoners and four hundred pieces of artillery, in addition to large amounts of small arms and ammunition, fell into the hands of the victorious invaders.

Ten years later, civil war between liberals and conservatives forced Benito Juárez's government to flee Mexico City.

French military forces accompanied them to prepare for Maximiliano I and occupied the city when the emperor and his wife Carlota of Belgium arrived in 1864.

[13] Between April and November 1914, during the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920), the US attacked and occupied the port in an effort to try to preserve trade in the dispute with President Victoriano Huerta.

[25] Because of its importance as Mexico's principal Caribbean and Atlantic sea port, Veracruz has always been a locus for the mixture of different cultures, particularly Spanish, Native Mexican, and African.

At that time, a request was made to sponsor a "Festival of Masks", which would consist of dances at the principal social gathering sites of the city such as the main theater.

The Casa de Cultura has a workshops for traditional music and son singers can be heard just about anytime on the main plaza (Zócalo)[30] Veracruz recipes use corn, beans and squash as staples, a practice dating to the indigenous peoples.

Local diets also include indigenous tropical foods such as chili peppers, tomatoes, avocados, pineapples, papaya, mamey, sweet potatoes, peanuts and sapote fruit, all of which have been cultivated since pre-Columbian times.

The Spanish introduced the use of herbs such as parsley, thyme, marjoram, bay laurel and coriander, as well as saffron, wheat, rice, almonds, olives/olive oil, garlic and capers.

[10] A signature dish of the area, Huachinango a la Veracruzana (red snapper Veracruz-style), uses local fruits and vegetables (tomatoes, chili peppers) and Spanish ingredients (olive oil, garlic and capers).

The story behind this custom is that a trolley driver used to ring his bell when he was a block away from the Gran Café del Portal to let the waiters know he was coming.

This tree-shaded square, in which a number of foreign invading armies have camped, is occupied from morning to night with people playing dominos, selling food, cigars, etc.

The Juárez Hemicycle Monument stands in front of the Civil Registry Building, which contains the first birth certificate issued in the country.

Porfirio Díaz approved the institute to train both Navy and Merchant Marine officers, to be based on similar schools in Western Europe.

[38] The City Museum (Museo de la Ciudad) is located at the intersections of Zaragoza and Esteban Morales streets in the historic center.

[31] News clips, caricatures and a replica of the radio studio where he hosted "La Hora Azul" ("The Blue Hour") are among the items on display.

[5] Laguna Verde Nuclear Power Plant (LVNPP) in nearby Alto Lucero, Veracruz, produces about 4.5% of Mexico's electrical energy.

Located on the south-central coast, Veracruz is closer to car manufacturers and has better access to both import and export markets in the U.S., Europe, Central and South America than other Mexican ports.

It started out as the School of Arts and Letters, with a mission to train students for the jobs associated with the developing port and industrial base of the city.