The city of Puebla is the
capital of the state of Puebla, and one
of the five most important Spanish colonial cities in Mexico. Being a colonial
era planned city, it is located to the east of Mexico City and west of Mexico's
main Atlantic port, Veracruz, on the main route between the two in Central
Mexico.
The city was founded in 1531 in
an area called Cuetlaxcoapan, which means "where serpents change their
skin", in between two of the main indigenous settlements at the time, Tlaxcala
and Cholula. Due to its history and
architectural styles ranging from Renaissance to Mexican Baroque, the city as
named a World Heritage Site in 1987. The city is also famous for food: mole poblano, chiles
en nogada and Talavera pottery (which we bought some pieces).
The city is also important because of its industry, with one
of the world's largest Volkswagen factories outside of Germany located in the
Municipality of Cuautlancingo. They employ over 60,000 workers. That is the
size of Avondale, AZ! As a result, many supplier factories have opened in
the city of Puebla.
So this is what we saw and experienced while in Puebla.
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| Street in Puebla all decorated for the Independence Day for Mexico. |
We ate a restaurant called Villa Rosa that had a buffet. We found out it was the fastest place to eat when you only have 2 hours to spend there - less time eating and more time sightseeing on your own! This is what our food looked like. All the veggies were cold (I miss hot veggies!). Buffet was good - I could pick what I thought was SAFE.
The streets were cobblestone, but they had the gutters built right next to the street and then the sidewalk on the other side. The gutters were like a trough. Curtis thought it was very clever!
Church of Santo Domingo in Puebla
Inside the church
Open air markets of all kinds! We saw junk for sale,
artistry of all kinds, clothing, furniture, you name it!
This is Talavera Pottery (we went to actual factory).
Reminded me of going to the Blue Delft in Holland.
We drove down one street, it was all a fish market.
We saw signs for Shark, Shrimp, you name it. They are
really close to the Gulf of Mexico - so all of it was fresh.
While visiting another church we saw a limo drive up with a wedding party. These are people lined up with their noses against the fense waiting for the bride to get out of the limo!
The 1857–62
Mexican civil war known as The Reform War had disorganized the country's
finances and the new President, Benito Juárez, was forced to suspend payments
of foreign debts in 1861. In late 1861 Napoleon III, Emperor of the French,
under the Treaty of London (1861) sent a joint expeditionary force to Mexico,
alongside Spanish and British forces, to protect their interests and collect
the debts owed by the previous Mexican government. The allied troops occupied
the port city of Veracruz on 8 December 1861 and advanced to Orizaba. Napoleon
III wanted to seize the opportunity presented by the U.S. involvement in the
American Civil War to set up a puppet Mexican regime. Napoleon's intrigues led
to the withdrawal of the Spanish and British troops in April 1862 at the same time
that French reinforcements arrived.
The Battle of Puebla took
place on 5 May 1862 near the city of Puebla during the French invasion of Mexico.
The battle ended in a victory for the Mexican Army over the occupying French
forces. The Mexican victory is celebrated yearly on the fifth of May.
This holiday remains very popular
in the United States where it is celebrated annually as Cinco de Mayo. I didn't know why, now I do!
