The state of Veracruz, a lush strip of land running the length of Mexico's eastern coast, is home to some of the easiest, lightest, and most varied food in Mexico's repertoire. To enjoy dishes like Seafood Salad in Avocado Halves, Garlicky Stir-Fried Shrimp, Orange-Flavored Chicken, and Mushroom Empanadas, you won't need to hunt down obscure chiles or master complicated techniques. Spanish influences evident in accessible ingredients like olive oil, olives, capers, raisins, and almonds give the state's cuisine a familiar Mediterranean character. At the same time, Veracruz's Caribbean orientation and powerful Afro-Cuban legacy offer plenty of choices for cooks who want kitchen adventure. In all, Zarela provides more than 150 choices, perfect for festive parties or ordinary suppers. Much more than a cookbook, Zarela's Veracruz is a mesmerizing travelogue and an absorbing portrait of Mexico's most exuberant state."

Beginning with the Spanish conquest, Mexico has become a racially complex society intermixing Indian, Spanish, and African populations. Questions of race and ethnicity have fueled much political and scholarly debate, sometimes obscuring the experiences of particular groups, especially blacks. Blacks in Colonial Veracruz seeks to remedy this omission by studying the black experience in central Veracruz during virtually the entire colonial period. The book probes the conditions that shaped the lives of inhabitants in Veracruz from the first European contact through the early formative period, colonial years, independence era, and the postindependence decade. While the primary focus is on blacks, Carroll relates their experience to that of Indians, Spaniards, and castas (racially hybrid people) to present a full picture of the interplay between local populations, the physical setting, and technological advances in the development of this important but little-studied region.

Explores how Veracruz's Afro-Mexican residents drew on Caribbean relationships to define a distinctive social and cultural community.

Beginning with the Spanish conquest, Mexico has become a racially complex society intermixing Indian, Spanish, and African populations. Questions of race and ethnicity have fueled much political and scholarly debate, sometimes obscuring the experiences of particular groups, especially blacks. Blacks in Colonial Veracruz seeks to remedy this omission by studying the black experience in central Veracruz during virtually the entire colonial period. The book probes the conditions that shaped the lives of inhabitants in Veracruz from the first European contact through the early formative period, colonial years, independence era, and the postindependence decade. While the primary focus is on blacks, Carroll relates their experience to that of Indians, Spaniards, and castas (racially hybrid people) to present a full picture of the interplay between local populations, the physical setting, and technological advances in the development of this important but little-studied region.

Young readers are guided on a journey to the city of Veracruz in Mexico with the help of young traveler Agustina.

Waking up in Mictlan, the underworld entrance of the North, nearly dead from an evil witch's attack—this is where James Endredy's gripping true account of his experience with the witches of Veracruz begins. As the apprentice of a powerful curandero, or healer, Endredy learns the dangerous magic and mystical arts of brujería, a nearly extinct form of Aztec witchcraft, and his perilous training is fraught with spiritual trials and tests. Taught how to invoke spirits of the underworld for assistance and use dream trance to "fly," Endredy is subjected to the black magic of a brujo negro and left alone in the graveyard of the brujo masters to fight for his life. He is also called upon to do battle with the most sinister of all witches—el Brujo de Muerte, the Witch of Death. Upon becoming a curandero himself, Endredy takes on harrowing real-life cases: healing a young man possessed by the spirit of an Aztec warrior, rescuing a teenage girl from a Mexican drug cartel, and hunting down a vampire witch terrorizing a small community.

This guide is drawn from our larger book on Mexico's Gulf Coast, but here we focus on the region of Veracruz, including Tuxpan, Papantla, Costa Esmeralsa, Tlacopaltan, Xalapa, Coatepec, Xico, Orizaba, Cordoba, San Andres Tuxtla and the town of Veracruz itself.a We travel to grow OCo our Adventure Guides show you how. Experience the places you visit more directly, freshly, intensely than you would otherwise OCo sometimes best done on foot, in a canoe, or through cultural adventures like art courses, cooking classes, learning the language, meeting the people, joining in the festivals and celebrations. This can make your trip life-changing, unforgettable. All of the detailed information you need is here about the hotels, restaurants, shopping, sightseeing. But we also lead you to new discoveries, turning corners you haven't turned before, helping you to interact with the world in new ways. That's what makes our Adventure Guides unique.a The area of Veracruz, Tabasco and north to the US border is a throwback to Mexico of old. It has volcanoes, rainforests, Maya ruins and such abundant wildlife that you will see hundreds of toucans and an island filled with monkeys. Experience the dance and music of Veracruz (birthplace of La Bamba), the fabulous local foods of Xalapa, the local festivals, the miles of pristine coastline, Mexico's tallest mountain, the sheer beauty of the jungles. Town and regional maps.a Reviews: Great Guide for a Much Overlooked Part of Mexico. I'm planning a trip to Veracruz soon, so I was delighted to find this book recently. All I was able to find before were general Mexico travel guides which gave scant attention to the state of Veracruz or the Gulf Coast area. This guide gives excellent, in-depth information on this much overlooked part of Mexico. All the cities and towns I plan to visit were listed in this guide, and good information on lodging was given. The general Mexico guides seem to recommend only the most expensive places to stay, while the Gulf Coast guide also includes budget accommodations. There was also good information on the archaeological sites to visit, where to stay and how to get there. Best of all, there was information in this book that I hadn't been able to find on the internet, which is where I had been augmenting the meager information on Veracruz that was in my other Mexico travel guides. In addition to the well researched and well presented written material, the book contains a nice section of color photographs, many of which were taken by the author. --a Marie McC (VA, United States)aaa This is the only guidebook I've ever seen that focuses on the Gulf Coast states of Mexico. Fortunately, it's an excellent one. If the Gulf Coast of Mexico is of interest to you, you should definitely add this book to your collection. Super helpful book if you're looking to be more adventurous than just going to Cancun! Seems to be very well researched and has a fresh just-been-there feel to it. -- S.D. Barnes"

Marks the long-awaited arrival—in English—of a masterful voice in Mexican and noir fiction Death in Veracruz is a gritty and atmospheric noir centered on the so-called oil wars of the late 1970s, which pitted the extremely powerful and corrupt government-owned oil cartel against the agrarian landowners in the Tabasco region of Southern Mexico. This novel, translated for the first time in English since its publication 30 years ago, concerns a journalist who investigates the death of a colleague and friend Rojano in a bizarre shooting incident that takes place in a small rural village, and who finds himself up against crooked police and petty government officials bought by the oil conglomerate. But, as he gets deeper and deeper into this Mexican Heart of Darkness, he finds Rojano was not all he seemed, and neither was his widow with whom he falls into a doomed affair. Death in Veracruz.