Ucú

Ucú is the seat of the small municipality of the same name, about 20 km north-west of Mérida in the flat, low-forest country between the capital and Hunucmá. The municipality covers some 130 km² and borders Progreso to the north, Umán to the south, Mérida to the east and Hunucmá to the west; it is now counted as part of the Mérida metropolitan area. The town had 3,119 inhabitants in 2020, up from about 500 a century earlier, as Mérida's growth has pushed out towards it. The Maya name is usually read as 'place of the seven moons' (uuc, seven, and u, moon), though the municipal coat of arms prefers another reading, the wild pigeon, úukum.

Before the Spanish conquest Ucú belonged to the Maya chiefdom of Ah Canul. After the conquest it was held in encomienda, among others by Doña Francisca Rodríguez Vicario. In 1825 it was placed in the partido of Mérida and later moved to that of Hunucmá, and on 22 December 1925 it became a free municipality. The town's main church was built on top of an ancient Maya platform, a common practice in colonial Yucatán, and there are pre-Hispanic remains both in the town itself and at Tisikul, elsewhere in the municipality. The other main locality is the old henequen hacienda village of Yaxché de Peón, just to the north.

Ucú is a quiet place without tourist infrastructure, and its interest lies in its everyday life and calendar. The main fiesta is held on 8 September for the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, with the vaquería and jarana dancing that open village fiestas across Yucatán, and dancers often compete with each other. For Hanal Pixán, the Days of the Dead, families set up altars in the main room of the house and offer the dead their favourite foods, mucbipollo, new-maize atole and hot chocolate. The arcaded municipal palace and the yellow church on the main square are the places to start, and the town makes an easy detour on the way to Yaxché de Peón or Sierra Papacal.