Sites of memory are places vested with historical, social or cultural significance due to events that took place there in the past. Their associative values end up being more important or comparable to the consideration that has been made of the materiality of the cultural assets conveying different meanings; however, the material remains may be essential for the understanding of the associative values. These places may be of particular importance based on the role they have played in the formation of the identity of a community or nation. Interpretation is an essential part of the management of sites with aspects associated to memory, since it is important to provide a global and inclusive narrative, as the San Juan de Ulua site museum has been doing and whose museological discourse will be updated taking on this new approach.
San Juan de Ulua is directly and materially associated with events that changed the vision of the world, mainly between the 16th and 18th centuries. It is the fortress of the Greater Caribbean, which brings together social history (migrations from four continents), economic history (the main mercantile and industrial port of Latin America), politics (site of great events that changed the universal vision and ways of life, from the conquest of the New Spain to the Independence of Mexico). In addition to being a bastion of the Mexican resistances against the military interventions from other countries.
San Juan de Ulua had a fundamental transcendence in the constant mercantile exchange, both in the shipment, insurance, transport and commercialization of all kinds of products the market offered, as well as in the transfer of technology that allowed their production within the rules of the the Spanish monopoly. Likewise, during its construction, it propitiated diverse parallel companies, from the construction of ships and expeditions, to the raising of cattle and manufactures. Hence, it was the only point the crown authorized to trade with Spain.
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