Veracruz
Port (trading in coffee, tobacco, and vanilla) in eastern Mexico, on the Gulf of Mexico; population (2005) 702,400. Products include chemicals, sisal, and textiles. It was founded by the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés as Villa Nueva de la Vera Cruz (‘new town of the true cross’) on a nearby site in 1519 and transferred to its present site in 1599.
Veracruz
| State of eastern Mexico, on the Gulf of Mexico; area 72,815 sq km/28,114 sq mi; population (2000 est) 6,901,100. Its capital is Jalapa Enríquez. The western area of Veracruz is a highland which is part of Mexico's Central Plateau, rising to 5,700 m/18,700 ft at Citlaltépetl, the highest mountain in the country. To the east along the Gulf of Mexico is a low-lying sandy area with lagoons. The main occupations are farming, producing cotton, rice, sugar-cane, coffee, maize, coconuts, bananas, and tobacco. Other industries include sugar refining, distilling, and textile manufacture. The state contains over a quarter of the country's oil resources and there are oilfields on the coastal strip. |
