Panabá

Panabá is a cattle town of about 5,300 people (5,318 in the 2020 census) in the far northeast of Yucatán, the seat of the municipality of the same name. It stands 17 metres above sea level on the flat ranch country between Tizimín and the coast, 23 km from Tizimín, 17 km from Sucilá, 33 km from Espita, 32 km from San Felipe, 41 km from Río Lagartos, 60 km from Ek Balam, 75 km from Valladolid and 166 km from Mérida. The name comes from the Maya páanab ha', "water found by digging", a reference to a dug well.

Before the conquest the site belonged to the Maya province of the Cupules, and Maya remains have been found where the town now stands. Local accounts offer three candidates for the original settlement: X-Lacah, the "old town" about 12 km away, now a ranch, with a 6-metre well of cut stone and the ruins of an early colonial open chapel built on top of a pre-Columbian mound; Acab Dzib, an ejido 5 km away with a spring and carved glyphs that have never been deciphered; and Acancún, also 5 km away, with ruined Maya buildings and cenotes. By around 1700 Panabá was an encomienda, governed from Valladolid through Tizimín, and it stayed in the Partido de Tizimín until it became the seat of its own municipality in 1918. The town grew from 407 people in 1910 to about 5,000 by 1990.

This part of the state is cattle country, and ranching shapes the town: a bull statue on the roundabout at the exit to Sucilá serves as a monument to livestock farming, and there is a charro ring, the Lienzo Charro Ernesto López Aranda, and a fairground. The centre has a large main park with a bandstand, an arcaded municipal palace with a clock tower, and the church of San Pedro, whose building date is unknown. The town's Casa de la Cultura, founded in 1999, runs workshops in guitar, painting and folk dance. Cenotes in the area include Acancún, Azul, Balam-Chaktán, Chen Chac and Chunchechén.

Panabá is liveliest at fiesta time. The fair of San Pedro runs from 26 to 30 June with vaquerías and jarana dancing, and two traditional dances: the Cabeza de Cochino (pig's head) and Los Ramilletes. In May, from the 11th to the 16th, the image of San Isidro Labrador is brought down from its niche to preside over a week of bullfights, jaranas and fireworks.