Tamanché

Tamanché, in full Santa María Tamanché, belongs to the municipality of Mérida and sits about 15 km north of the city centre, on the west side of the road to Progreso. Its neighbours are Xcunyá to the east and Santa María Yaxché to the south. The 2020 count found 649 residents, close to a hundred more than in 2005. The Maya name is read as "wooden ram": taman means sheep and che' means wood.

The village took shape around a henequen estate that did well in the decades when the fibre made Yucatán rich, from the late 1800s into the early 1900s. The estate paid its people in tokens struck for it: the 1912 pieces name Fernando and Alfonso Bolio as owners, and one was worth the weeding of a mecate, the unit Yucatecans use to measure land. Collectors look for them today.

The hacienda's gateway still stands, two tall red and white pillars topped with pinnacles that open onto the old estate grounds, and the brick chimney of the former engine room rises above the trees. Tamanché has mostly paved streets with sidewalks, a Catholic church, the comisaría office, parks, a kindergarten, a primary school, a sports court and a cemetery. It is just off the Progreso road, and Xcunyá, another hacienda village, lies right next door.