Tebec

Tebec is a village in the municipality of Umán, about 6 km south-east of the city of Umán in a straight line. It had 458 people at the 2020 census, roughly three times the 154 counted in 1900. The name comes from Maya and is said to mean 'place of the oak trees'. The census briefly recorded it as Tobec in 1940, before the old spelling came back in 1950.

Tebec is one of the former henequen haciendas of the Umán area, and the hacienda still shapes the village. The old buildings stand around a wide grassy square planted with royal palms: a long main house with an arcaded upper floor reached by a double stairway, a long ochre building with a curved gable and a small bell tower, and other outbuildings with stone gateposts at the entrances. The fields, like those of the other haciendas around Umán, were the base of a henequen economy that faded in the late 20th century.

On the village side stands the church, a pale yellow building with a stepped bell gable for three bells and a smaller gable beside it, behind a low wall with stone posts, and a small park shaded by trees. Tebec has no visitor services, but its hacienda square is worth a look and pairs well with nearby Xtepén and Hotzuc.