Margarita Island

The Guaiquerí people lived on the island when Christopher Columbus sighted it in 1498. The pearl beds along its coasts made it valuable at once — pearls came to make up almost a third of all the tribute that the Americas sent to the Spanish Crown — and it became the centre of the province of Margarita, created in 1525. Its wealth drew attackers. In 1561 the rebel conquistador Lope de Aguirre seized the island and killed its governor, and after a French raid in the 1670s the governor ordered the castle of Santa Rosa built above La Asunción; Pampatar's fort was completed in 1684.

In the independence war the island turned against Spain early. It freed itself in 1814 and became the first territory of Venezuela to remain free, despite Pablo Morillo's landing with a large fleet in 1815; Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi, wife of the patriot leader Juan Bautista Arismendi, was held for months in the Santa Rosa castle. In 1816 Bolívar was confirmed as commander-in-chief on the island before his campaigns on the mainland, and the battle of Matasiete on 31 July 1817 is counted the most important of the island's fights. Their resistance gave the state its name, Nueva Esparta, "New Sparta".

In 1974 the island became a duty-free port, and cheap imports brought shoppers, hotels and malls; for decades Margarita was the holiday island of Venezuela, and it hosted baseball's Caribbean Series in 2010 and 2014. The national crisis reversed the boom: tourism fell by about 90 per cent between 2010 and 2020, the state took over the main ferry company in 2011, and the island has lost people to emigration.

Margarita's identity is that of a seafaring island: pearl divers and fishermen fill its legends, and its music includes the galerón and the malagueña, sung in improvised verses to cuatro and guitar. Islanders take pride in the independence story told in their state's name, and they draw a clear line between themselves and the navegaos, the mainlanders who have settled here.

Faith centres on the Virgen del Valle, patron of eastern Venezuela and of the navy, whose basilica in El Valle del Espíritu Santo draws pilgrims from Margarita, Coche, Cubagua and the mainland for her feast in September. Catholicism is the main religion, with growing evangelical churches and small Jewish and Muslim communities. The island also has descendants of enslaved West Africans and immigrant families from Lebanon, Syria, Spain, Italy and elsewhere.

Its place in Venezuelan life is as the country's beach and shopping escape: for decades families from Caracas, Maracaibo, Valencia and Barquisimeto came for Christmas, Carnival and Holy Week, filling hotels and beaches. Bolas criollas, the Venezuelan game of bowls, is widely played, and baseball is followed as on the mainland.

Well over 400,000 people live on Margarita, a number that swells in the holiday seasons, though emigration has reduced it in recent years. Most live in the developed east. Porlamar, the largest city, has about 85,000 people in the low season and up to about 125,000 in the high season; Pampatar has about 50,000, and La Asunción, the state capital, about 28,500.

Tourism has long been the main industry, built on the free port, and its collapse after 2010 hit the island hard. Fishing remains important, with catches of snapper, kingfish, mullet, dogfish, sardines, lobster, shrimp and clams. The island has also been described as a centre of organised crime and money laundering, and armed robbery affects residents as well as visitors.

Life follows the coast and the calendar: fishermen go out early, the malls and markets of Porlamar fill in the day, and the beaches crowd at weekends and in holiday seasons, when mainland visitors return. Power, water and fuel shortages are part of daily life as elsewhere in Venezuela.

Margarita eats from the sea. The island's own version of the national dish, pabellón margariteño, replaces the shredded beef of pabellón criollo with shredded, stewed cazón, young shark, served with black beans, rice and fried plantain. The same stewed cazón goes into torta de cazón, a bake layered with egg and slices of fried plantain. Pastel de chucho is a similar bake of stingray, ripe plantain and cheese, and consomé de chipichipi is a broth of tiny clams.

The fish markets and beach restaurants serve the day's catch — pargo (snapper), carite (kingfish), lisa (mullet) and jurel — usually fried and eaten with tostones, flattened twice-fried green plantain. Hervido de pescado, a fish soup with cassava, pumpkin and green plantain, is the standard coastal meal, and guacuco clams, oysters and lobster also reach the table.

Beyond seafood, the island eats as the rest of Venezuela does: arepas for breakfast and at any hour, empanadas, and, at Christmas, hallacas wrapped in plantain leaf. Coconut is everywhere, in drinks and sweets, and strong black coffee is drunk through the day.