AMLO inaugurates the first phase of restoration of San Juan de Ulúa

Emir Olivares Alonso

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Newspaper La Jornada
Saturday December 3, 2022, p. 4

Veracruz, Ver., The historic fort of San Juan de Ulua fulfilled a new stop in its long tradition.

Last night the fortress was reopened after completing the first stage of restoration, with the purpose of preserving the memory and culture that it has accompanied and of which its high and humid concrete walls are silent witnesses.

The colonial building was built on the islet –the first point to which the Spanish arrived in today’s Mexican lands– which is located just in front of the port of Veracruz.

After two years of rehabilitation work, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, accompanied by his wife, Beatriz Gutiérrez; the Secretaries of Culture, Navy and Defense, Alejandra Frausto, José Rafael Ojeda and Luis Cresencio Salazar, respectively; The head of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), Diego Prieto, and Governor Cuitláhuac García, inaugurated this new stage so that the fort continues to keep part of Mexican memory alive.

It was an emotional and evocative ceremony that took us on a journey through time, as well as the importance and contributions of Afro-descendant cultures to our country.

Obliged was the accompaniment of the son jarocho –with a live group– to share the lay down of this land with those present and who dedicated his first performance to the brown people.

The federal president evoked part of the history of this old construction, planned since the time of Hernán Cortés and built during the Colony, as a defense fortress against attacks by pirates and corsairs.

It was here, he explained, where Independence finished consummating, in 1825; faced the first French invasion in 1838, known as the Cakes war; the defense of sovereignty took place before the first US intervention from 1847 to 1848, a process by which half of its territory was taken from Mexico, and was part of the second expulsion of the French and a new defense against the United States in 1914.

There is a lot of history in Veracruz, and being in this fort means the defense of independence, but it also symbolizes freedomsentenced López Obrador.

The pyrotechnic lights illuminated the Jarocho sky and were reflected on the Gulf sea as a celebration of the new stage of this enormous historical mass.

Known are some of the names of those who were prisoners within its walls: Fray Servando Teresa de Mier, Fray Melchor de Talamantes, Benito Juárez, the journalist and writer Florencio del Castillo, the Flores Magón brothers, Esteban Baca Calderón – one of the leaders of the strike of Cananea– and Juan Sarabia.

But without a doubt, the most famous of the inmates was Jesús Arraiga, better known as Chucho the Broken, who in the style of Robin Hood, stole from the rich to help the poor. He managed to escape from the pillboxes more than once, jumping into the water and swimming through sharks.

The INAH director explained that the rehabilitation included five deliveries: the drainage system of the parade ground, since there were constant floods; the electrical system of that esplanade and the fortress; a first stage of restoration of the Caballero Alto and the tower of San Quintín; the restoration of the Wall of the Rings, a façade that points to the port boardwalk, and paving, doors and bridges of various spaces.

To add to the tone, the President told a personal anecdote that links him to Veracruz: “My father played the harp and the jarana and stomped his feet and danced very well, like a good Veracruz native, jarocho. And I said to Beatriz: ‘I didn’t get anything out of those attributes.’ And she tells me: ‘It’s just that you don’t let go, you’re just thinking about one thing (she didn’t reveal which one), relax, and it may be that those virtues come out of you.’ But the truth is that it is a happiness that they enjoy the art and music of Veracruz ”.

(With information from Arturo Sánchez)