Tixcacal

Tixcacal, also called Tixcacal Opichén, is a subcomisaría of Mérida municipality about 10 km west of the city centre, beyond Opichén on the city's western fringe. It had 881 inhabitants at the 2010 census, and like its neighbour it is being reached by Mérida's growth, with the Faisanes and Solana housing developments built nearby. The Maya name is translated as 'the well with two curbs', that is, a cenote with two openings.

The village grew up around a hacienda that flourished during the henequen boom of the late 19th century. Like many estates of the time it paid its workers partly in its own tokens; the surviving pieces name Ignacio Gómez as the owner in 1889 and are sought today by numismatists. Census figures show the estate's decline, from 113 people in 1900 to just 24 in 1940, before the village grew again in the second half of the 20th century. Pre-Hispanic remains have also been recorded in the village.

Today Tixcacal has a Catholic church, a park, a kindergarten and a primary school, an ejido house, a pharmacy, a municipal cemetery and the comisaría building. The old hacienda is the most visible landmark: its red-painted perimeter walls and gate pillars run along the main street under large shade trees, with the estate buildings behind them. There are no visitor services, so Tixcacal is a short stop for anyone exploring the hacienda villages on Mérida's western edge, together with Opichén.