Sucopó

Sucopó is a village in the municipality of Tizimín, in the cattle country of northeastern Yucatán, about 11 kilometers east of the city of Tizimín in a straight line. The 2020 census counted 1,668 people here, and the village has grown steadily over the last century, from about 320 inhabitants in 1900 to roughly 700 in 1960 and more than 1,500 by 2010. Its name comes from Maya.

The area was part of the Maya province of the Cupules before the Spanish arrived; Tizimín and its surroundings were taken for the Spanish crown around 1550 by Captain Sebastián Burgos and then held under the encomienda system through colonial times. Sucopó's most striking reminder of that era is its old church: a tall, plastered gable front with round windows stands beside the roofless stone walls and arches of an earlier structure, catalogued on Wikimedia Commons as an open chapel, now overgrown at the top with plants and set in a grassy yard with palms.

The village's big celebration is the fiesta for the Virgin of Candelaria, held from January 28 to 31, right after Tizimín's large Three Kings fair (December 29 to January 6). Otherwise Sucopó is a quiet place of houses around open lots and big shade trees, including a large ceiba, and makes a short detour for anyone interested in the colonial churches of the Tizimín area.