Cacalchén Municipality (In the
Yucatec Maya
Yucatec Maya (; referred to by its speakers simply as Maya or as , is one of the 32 Mayan languages of the Mayan language family. Yucatec Maya is spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula and northern Belize. There is also a significant diasporic commu ...
Language: “place of the well with two mouths”) is one of the 106
municipalities
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
in the
Mexican state of
Yucatán
Yucatán (, also , , ; yua, Yúukatan ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán,; yua, link=no, Xóot' Noj Lu'umil Yúukatan. is one of the 31 states which comprise the federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate mun ...
containing (76.64 km
2) of land and located roughly 40 km east of the city of
Mérida.
History
There is no extant record of Mayan settlement prior to the conquest. After the
conquest
Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms.
Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...
the area became part of the
encomienda system and Maria Sanchez Sosa was one of the first known encomenderos.
Yucatán declared its independence from the Spanish Crown in 1821 and in 1825, the area was assigned to the coastal region with its headquarters in Izamal. In May 1848 during the
Caste War of Yucatán, Cacalchén became a refuge to Colonel José del Carmen Bello after the Mayan rebels defeated government troops and took Izamal. In December of the same year, the Mayan guerrillas commanded by Jacinto Pat looted the town and killed the white settlers.
In 1900 it was withdrawn and became head of the municipality which bears its name.
Governance
The municipal president is elected for a three-year term. The town council has seven aldermen who serve as councilors for public works, public services, ecology, parks, public sanitation, nomenclature and cemeteries.
Communities
The head of the municipality is
Cacalchén, Yucatán. The other populated areas in the municipality are Catzín, Puhá, Sahcabá and San Antonio. The significant populations are shown below:
Local festivals
Every year from 20 to 29 June a celebration is held in honor of the patron saints of the town, St. Peter and St. Paul.
Tourist attractions
* Church of St. Paul dates to the sixteenth century
* Hacienda Dzidzilché
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cacalchen
Municipalities of Yucatán