For generations, the orquesta jaranera — the brass-and-percussion ensemble that drives Yucatán’s beloved traditional music — has been almost exclusively a male domain. That changed on the night of April 15, when nine women took the stage at the Palacio de la Música in Mérida and performed as Piel de Barro, the first all-female jarana…
Call yourself “American” in Mexico, and most people will know exactly what you mean. Do it in Bogotá or Buenos Aires, and you might get a raised eyebrow — or a gentle lecture. It’s one of those cultural friction points that tends to catch U.S. residents abroad off guard. The word “American,” perfectly ordinary back…
In the heart of Monterrey’s Parque Fundidora, a massive terracotta building houses the country’s most important tribute to baseball. The Salón de la Fama del Beisbol Mexicano (Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame) opened in 2019, offering a modern alternative to the static, velvet-rope museums that typically define sports history. Here, the exhibits are not just…
In Yucatán, the hammock is not simply a place to sleep. For many families, it represents something far more significant.
Fernando Delgadillo González emerged from the underground SEIMUS Collective in the late 1980s and built a career on his own terms, famously coining the term canción informal (Informal Song) to describe his refusal to conform to commercial record labels’ demands. For over three decades, Delgadillo has remained a significant figure in Latin American folk and…
Nearly four and a half-years after a fire devastated the Peón Contreras, Mérida’s most iconic venue continues to deteriorate. At the same time, officials have remained silent, and reopening dates keep being pushed back. A commission to restore the Peón Contreras was completed in 2023, but showed no tangible results. On Aug. 15, 2025, the…
A leafy green shrub that has nourished Maya communities for millennia is taking center stage in the southern Yucatán town of Tekax this month, when the second edition of the Festival de la Chaya, or Chaya Festival, comes to the town’s downtown plaza. The event brings together roughly 30 vendors offering dishes, drinks, and desserts…
In 1951, a Yucatecan architect named Leopoldo Tommasi published a book in Mexico City called La ciudad de ayer, hoy y mañana — The City of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. It was part history, part complaint, and part urban vision. Seventy-five years later, researchers say it quietly shaped the way Mérida looks today. Tommasi was…
One of the more telling footnotes in Yucatán’s political history involves not a palace or a prison, but a pair of columns that stood at the northern edge of Mérida for barely a decade — long enough to be photographed, not long enough to be remembered. In 1928, Gov. Álvaro Torre Díaz marked the opening…
Trade routes, goods, and the merchants were bound up with politics, cosmology, and everyday ritual — and still echo today.
Nearly seven decades after a plane crash silenced one of Mexico’s most beloved voices, Pedro Infante continues to draw crowds. On April 15, cultural authorities, families, and citizen groups will gather in Mérida to honor the “Idol of Mexico” on the 69th anniversary of his death—a testament to a legacy that has only grown stronger…
For more than two decades, a domed room tucked inside the Centro Cultural Olimpo — right on the Plaza Grande — has been one of Mérida’s quiet cultural treasures. The Planetario Arcadio Poveda Ricalde has introduced generations of schoolchildren and curious visitors to the mechanics of the cosmos, the formations of distant galaxies, and the…
When the Amazon Series “La Oficina” was first announced, it was met with skepticism. After all, Mexican production studios don’t exactly have a stellar reputation when it comes to remakes of beloved foreign TV Shows. How to forget the mess that was Metastasis, a shot-by-shot remake of Vince Gilligan´s Breaking Bad? The main concern regarding…
(Updated to reflect new schedule) Dave O. Dodge has spent more than a decade living in Mérida’s Centro Histórico, running a boutique bed-and-breakfast and writing fiction rooted in the New England he left behind. His latest novel returns to that territory — and to some of its darkest history. Released March 24, Hannah: One Woman’s…
On paper, Ucú is still a tiny rural town. It is a place of ejidos (communal lands), hidden Maya pyramids, and natural aguadas (freshwater pools) that sustain local wildlife. But the sound of chainsaws and surveying equipment is now echoing through its forests, and the locals say their home is the “next target” of an…
For many residents of Mérida, the approach of Semana Santa (Holy Week) often conjures images of packed bus stations, fully booked beach resorts, and highways clogged with traffic. It is the period when families across Mexico pack their bags to visit relatives or hunt for sunshine on the coasts. As schools close and thousands of…
In Mexico, the Maya language has approximately 800,000 speakers, most of whom live in Tabasco, Chiapas, and the Yucatán Peninsula.
In Yucatán, Holy Week—known as Semana Santa—transcends religious commemoration to become a profound cultural experience for the state’s identity. Unlike the massive commercial celebrations found elsewhere, Yucatán offers a more serene experience, where solemn processions, traditional hymns, and family gatherings honor centuries of tradition. Yet, for the less devout, it represents an opportunity to travel…
Yucatán’s Congress is moving to officially recognize the Hetzmek, an ancient Maya ritual commonly known as a “Maya baptism,” as part of the state’s intangible cultural heritage. Independent Deputy Rosana Couoh Chan, who speaks both Maya and Spanish during legislative sessions, presented the initiative to grant the ceremony legal protection. She argues that the ritual…
The Orquesta Sinfónica de Yucatán closed out the sixth program of its 45th season this weekend with a concert built around two of classical music’s most searching themes — grief and transcendent love — timed precisely to the opening of Holy Week. Under conductor Alfonso Scarano, the orchestra performed Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater alongside…
For 30 years, the official record-keepers of Mérida’s history were all men. That changed Wednesday. The Mérida city council voted unanimously to appoint María Teresa Mézquita Méndez and Ileana Beatriz Lara Navarrete to the Consejo de Cronistas — the city’s honorary Council of Chroniclers — making them the first women to hold the role since…
One of Mérida’s most recognizable landmarks will require a full restoration project after sustaining significant damage during International Women’s Day demonstrations earlier this month. Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) issued a formal technical assessment this week concluding that the Monumento a la Patria on Paseo de Montejo suffered the most severe damage…
After a five-year closure, the Dolores Olmedo Museum in Xochimilco will reopen on May 30, giving visitors access to the world’s largest collection of Frida Kahlo’s paintings. The Mexico City museum houses 25 original works by Kahlo, more than any other museum in the world. By comparison, the Frida Kahlo Museum, also known as the…
Travelers in Mérida will soon have a new nonstop route to the U.S. border — and, just a short bridge walk away, to Southern California. Volaris is relaunching its Tijuana-Mérida route on June 1, with four weekly flights connecting the two cities nonstop for the first time since early 2024. The service originally launched in…
That’s all for now
That’s all for now