Xalapa

**Xalapa** (also spelled Jalapa), officially known as **Xalapa-Enríquez**, serves as the capital of the Mexican state of Veracruz and gives its name to the surrounding municipality. According to the 2020 census, the city had 443,063 residents, while the municipality—which covers 118.45 square kilometers—had 488,531. Situated near the state’s geographic center, Xalapa is Veracruz’s second-largest city, trailing only the port city of Veracruz to the southeast.

The name Xalapa comes from Classical Nahuatl: *xālli* (“sand”) and *āpan* (“place of water”), meaning roughly “spring in the sand.” In Nahuatl it was pronounced [ʃalaːpan] (often dropping the final /n/), and Spanish adopted it as Xalapa. The full official name, Xalapa-Enríquez, honors 19th-century governor Juan de la Luz Enríquez. The city’s nickname, “City of Flowers,” was coined by Alexander von Humboldt during his visit on February 10, 1804, and ties into colonial folklore: the Spanish supposedly believed Xalapa was the birthplace of the world’s most beautiful woman, la Florecita (“little flower”). Residents are called Xalapeños or Jalapeños—a term also used for the large peppers cultivated in the area.

The Totonacs were the first to settle around Macuiltepetl (“fifth mountain” in Nahuatl), an extinct volcano the Aztecs used as a reference point to reach the Gulf of Mexico. Today it is preserved as a park. In the 14th century, four indigenous groups founded separate villages: the Totonacas built Xalitic (“in the sand”), the Toltecas founded Tecuanapan (“river of the beasts”) to the northeast, and the Teochichimecas established Tlalnecapan. Around 1313, these villages merged into a single settlement called Xallapan. The Aztec emperor Moctezuma Ilhuicamina invaded during the latter half of the 15th century, and the area remained under Aztec rule until the Spanish conquest.

Hernán Cortés passed through Xalapa in 1519 on his way to Tenochtitlan. In 1555, Spanish Franciscans completed a convent there, a notable event in colonial New Spain. After the conquest, Xalapa’s population grew, but it later stagnated in the 17th century when the Spanish improved the Mexico-Orizaba-Veracruz route, reducing the town’s importance as a transport hub. From 1720 onward, Xalapa revived as a trade center, attracting Spanish families from nearby towns. By 1760, the population exceeded 1,000, including mestizos and Spaniards. Local commerce included botanical medicines, notably *Ipomoea purga*, the source of the drug jalap. Growth in population, culture, and commerce surged in the 18th century, leading King Carlos IV of Spain to declare Xalapa a town on December 18, 1791.

Construction of Xalapa Cathedral began in 1772. On May 18, 1784, José María Alfaro launched the first hot-air balloon in the Americas from Xalapa. Humboldt’s 1804 visit earned the town its floral nickname. Xalapa was officially named a city by decree on November 29, 1830. In 1843, Don Antonio María de Rivera founded the Normal School of Xalapa to train teachers; it now operates as a college-preparatory school.

During the Mexican-American War, General Antonio López de Santa Anna led over 12,000 soldiers against U.S. forces near Xalapa at the Battle of Cerro Gordo on April 18, 1847. Mexican casualties were heavy—about 1,000 killed and 3,000 wounded—and U.S. troops occupied the city the next day. Among them was Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant, who later called Jalapa “decidedly the most beautiful place I ever saw in my life” and praised its climate as “the best in the world.” Local defenders Ambrosio Alcalde and Antonio García fought to protect Veracruz, were captured, paroled, then rejoined the fight. Recaptured near Teocelo, they were sentenced to death and executed in Xalapa on November 24, 1847. An obelisk between San José Church and Alcalde Market commemorates them. U.S. forces marched on to Mexico City and left after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

In November 1862, Xalapa was attacked during the French invasion, and foreigners briefly controlled the state capital. On November 27, 1867, the corpse of Emperor Maximilian I—executed in Querétaro—arrived in Xalapa, was held at San José Church, and was transferred to Veracruz the next day for shipment back to Austria. In 1885, Governor Juan de la Luz Enríquez boosted Xalapa’s influence by moving some legislative authority from Orizaba to the city, following a June 1884 decree by provisional Governor Juan Manuel Fernández de Jáuregui. The following year, Enríquez and Swiss teacher Enrique C. Rébsamen founded the Normal School in Xalapa.