Life moves slowly in Tepakán, an authentic Yucatan pueblo

Life moves slowly in Tepakán. This small town between Motul and Izamal keeps alive a Yucatán that feels authentic, far from the influence and rhythms of the city.

We visited Tepakán on a Saturday and found it exceptionally quiet. The midday heat drives locals away from public spaces, but in the afternoon, families can be seen enjoying the park and central plaza.

There’s a quality to the buildings in the main square that stands out. They’re all painted in vibrant colors and bold chromatic combinations. Officials at the municipal office say a mayor decided to paint the town this way as a declaration of neutrality against past governors’ obsession with painting everything in their political party’s colors. Curiously, in certain corners of the town, houses and walls can be found painted in party colors with their acronyms, just so there’s no doubt.

The main church has the classic Franciscan façade that repeats frequently throughout the state. It’s painted with the yellow and white combination that characterizes the buildings of Izamal. Inside are crypts with the remains of Tepakán inhabitants from the 19th and 18th centuries.

Once part of the Mayan chiefdom of Ah Kin Chel, Tepakán’s modern history has its roots in the henequen era. Its geographic position, close to the coast, allowed haciendas like Tzalancab to prosper. When henequen prices collapsed, the town had to reinvent itself through beekeeping and the cultivation of corn, beans, and fruit trees.

We visited an old henequen hacienda whose current owners use it to grow lemons and papaya. Next to the sea of lemon trees are the remains of the hacienda’s main house, abandoned and fading away due to the lack of economic incentive to rescue it.

A handful of expatriates live quietly in the town, which is known for its honey production and other melipona bee derivatives. The community families themselves obtain these products from meliponaries installed in their backyards.

A friendly neighbor showed us what remains of her home apiary. Just one box, though packed with melipona bees, is all that survives from an operation that once occupied most of her yard. Agricultural chemicals from neighboring farmers killed her melipona bees, leaving her with no desire to resurrect her business. According to her, this is a problem that more and more beekeeping families face.

Though at a slow pace, external influences are appearing in Tepakán. In recent years, a developer announced the construction of a residential project in the town’s vicinity. The architecture and design of the project is no different from the hundreds of developments built every day in the state. In contrast, a New Yorker rehabilitated an old mansion and occupies it with his partner seasonally.

(From Issue 15 of Yucatán Magazine, for sale online.)