Dzityá

Dzityá is a comisaría of Mérida municipality about 15 km north of the city centre, roughly half an hour's drive away. The city has grown so close that it is now almost a suburb, but the village keeps its own square, its comisaría building and the small Chapel of the Immaculate Conception (Inmaculada Concepción), both of which the city of Mérida lists as municipal cultural heritage. The name is Maya: dzit, to count, and ya, the sapodilla tree. About 1,240 people lived here at the 2010 census.

The village was officially founded in 1890, though there are signs of Maya settlement in the area from about 300 BC to AD 800. What Dzityá is known for across Yucatán is its carving. Around 40 workshops, most of them small family affairs, cut and sculpt six kinds of local stone, including Ticul, Macedonia, conchuela and fossil stone, into religious figures, fountains, lamps and garden pieces. Other artisans work hardwoods such as huayacán, mahogany and cedar, and occasionally ziricote and tzalam, into furniture and decorative objects. Many carvers hold other jobs and work in the evenings and at weekends, with techniques passed down in their families.

A visit is mostly about walking the streets, looking into the open workshops and buying directly from the people who make the pieces; the village also holds a crafts fair, the Feria Tunich. Between Dzityá and neighbouring Cheumán is the Chen Ha cenote, an open, oval pool of about 10 by 6 metres, with the water some 2 metres below ground level and up to 4 metres deep, which locals use as a family swimming spot. Dzityá pairs easily with Cheumán and San Antonio Hool, two old hacienda villages just to the west.