Oncán

Oncán is a subcomisaría of Mérida municipality about 13 km east of the city centre, in the old henequen country between Mérida and Tixkokob. It is a small, quiet place: 610 people lived here at the 2010 census, more than double the 245 counted in 1930. The Maya name is usually explained as joining on, the avocado, with can, the serpent.

Until the 19th century Oncán belonged to the municipality of Tixkokob rather than to Mérida. It flourished during the henequen boom, when the hacienda at its centre processed the fibre that made Yucatán rich, and like many estates of the time the hacienda paid its workers partly in its own tokens; these coins, which name Manuel Medina as the owner, are now sought by collectors.

Today the village has a Catholic church, a park, a kindergarten and a primary school, the comisaría building and a sports court. The former hacienda is the landmark: behind a dry-stone wall stands a long white main house with an arcaded front and the tall chimney of the old machine house, and the stone pillars of old gateways still mark the edges of the estate. There are no services for visitors, so Oncán is a short stop for anyone driving through the villages east of Mérida to see a henequen hacienda from the road.