San Antonio Chun

San Antonio Chun lies at the western end of Umán municipality, right by the Samahil boundary; the centre of Samahil is only about 3 km off. As the crow flies, Umán town is 12 km to the east and downtown Mérida roughly 26 km to the east-north-east. The 2020 census counted 1,015 residents, against 866 in 2005 and just 117 in 1900.

Its roots, as with many places around Umán, lie in an estate, and Spanish-language Wikipedia includes it in its list of Yucatán haciendas. The saint in the name is Anthony of Padua, while Chun comes from Yucatec Maya. Census spellings have wandered over the last hundred years: Chum until 1910, San Antonio Chun from 1910, San Antonio Chón in 1980 and San Antonio Chum in 1995, and then back to San Antonio Chun.

Flat and quiet, the village belongs to the old henequen belt and has no services aimed at tourists. The centre gathers the comisaría, a basketball court with a park, a little church set back behind a red wall and an old well sheltered by a stone arch. Long dry-stone walls from the former hacienda run along the surrounding lanes. For shopping you have to go to Umán, 12 km east, which also has its 18th-century church and former convent dedicated to St Francis of Assisi and holds the fiesta of the Santo Cristo del Amor from 13 to 15 September.