Abalá

Abalá is a small town of about 2,040 people (2020 census) and the seat of the municipality of the same name, about 37 km south of Mérida in the southwest of Yucatán state. The name is Maya and is usually explained as "place where plum juice is drunk", from abal, the native plum (ciruela), and a contraction of ja', water; it used to be written Abalhá. Like most villages in this part of the state, it is low and flat, set among scrub and old henequen fields, and life centers on the main plaza with its yellow church, its two bell towers facing the square, and the blue municipal palace.

In the colonial period Abalá was an encomienda: the right to its people's tribute was granted in 1549 to Francisco de Montejo the Younger, son of the conqueror of Yucatán, and later passed through a string of Spanish nobles, including the Countess of Olivares and the Duchess of Medina Sidonia; in 1727 the holder, Josefa Díaz Bolio, had 211 Maya under her charge. The municipality as it exists today dates from 1921. Its borders shifted with the haciendas: Maxal and Kambriche went to Muna in 1902, and Yaxcopoil passed to Umán in 1926. The area lies in the old henequen zone, and the economy is still mostly small-scale farming. Many people speak Maya; in 2010 about 3,800 of the municipality's residents aged three and over did.

The town itself is modest, but it is the gateway to some of the best day-trip stops south of Mérida. The municipality's 301 km² hold nine localities and around 6,550 people, many of them living in former haciendas: Uayalceh (the largest), Temozón Sur with its luxury hacienda hotel, Mucuyché with its cenotes, Pebá, Cacao and Sihunchén. Within a few kilometers of town are Hacienda Ochil on the Uxmal road, the semi-open cenote Kankirixché, Cenote Yaal Utzil and the Hacienda Mucuyché cenotes. Every year from 10 to 17 May, Abalá holds its fiesta in honor of the Virgin Mary.