Abstract
In colonial times, the route linking Mexico City with the Atlantic port of Veracruz formed an essential part of the road network that connected the various parts of the Viceroyalty of New Spain with the rest of the world. The route, through which the passengers and the goods went back and forth from Spain, had been consecrated in the episodes of the conquest made by Hernán Cortés, and had, besides its commercial value, a deep symbolic meaning that was updated in the lavish official ceremonies (for example, on each arrival of the new viceroys) that served to strengthen and confirm the colonial pact with the metropolis. Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, the road was the object of a vast literature of technical, circumstantial and historical character, whose main examples will be discussed in this essay.
Keywords:
Mexico-Veracruz Road; Colonial Era; New Spain