Who are the residents of Yucatan: Riviera Maya, Playa del Carmen, Cancun, Merida, etc.? Who lives in Yucatan: Riviera Maya, Playa del Carmen, Cancun, Merida, etc.?

In Yucatan you’ve got a melting pot of people from all over the world, which is another thing that we really like about living here.  Yucatan has people from all over Europe, Canada, the US, different parts of Mexico, everywhere. You get to immerse yourself in all different cultures. Our kids have friends from all over the world, so they’re learning different cultures.  It’s great.

 

In some places you in other parts of the world,...

In Yucatan you’ve got a melting pot of people from all over the world, which is another thing that we really like about living here.  Yucatan has people from all over Europe, Canada, the US, different parts of Mexico, everywhere. You get to immerse yourself in all different cultures. Our kids have friends from all over the world, so they’re learning different cultures.  It’s great.

 

In some places you in other parts of the world, people can get segregated into geographical areas. But here in Playa Del Carmen, everybody’s together. The people not from here often open up restaurants so it’s good to have restaurants from around the world. 

 

This is more the case in Playa del Carmen than in other parts of Yucatan.  Playa Del Carmen has the diversity. Cancun got much smaller expat community; more Americans I would say living there and some Canadians. And then once you get to Merida, there are more Mexicans from different parts of Mexico. But Playa Del Carmen itself is the melting pot area. 

 

People come here and don’t want to leave. You may meet a foreigner and ask, “Where are you from?”

 

“I’m from Argentina.”

 

“How long have you been here?”

 

“Like a year.”

 

“What happened?”

 

“I came on vacation and I didn’t leave.”

 

There’s something that draws people here. I’m sure it has something to do with all the different cultures, the weather, and the relaxed feel that you get here. So people come here and they never want to leave. We came here twice on vacation and then moved here.  

 

(Aqua Villa, a home facing a golf course in Playa del Carmen, Yucatan, Mexico, pictured.)

The people who live in state of Yucatan, consider themselves different from the other states in the Yucatan Peninsula and from Mexico in general. If you live in the state of Yucatan, you are a Yucatecan. You’re not a Mexican; you’re a Yucatecan. 

 

Back in 1840 to 1850, the Yucatecans tried to succeed in Mexico. They wanted to be their own entity and unfortunately it didn’t work out. The Yucatecan people are very proud of who they are...

The people who live in state of Yucatan, consider themselves different from the other states in the Yucatan Peninsula and from Mexico in general. If you live in the state of Yucatan, you are a Yucatecan. You’re not a Mexican; you’re a Yucatecan. 

 

Back in 1840 to 1850, the Yucatecans tried to succeed in Mexico. They wanted to be their own entity and unfortunately it didn’t work out. The Yucatecan people are very proud of who they are and where they are and to be able to say that you are Yucatecan means a lot. It means more than saying, “I am Mexican.” If you are a Yucatecan, that’s special. 

 

The state bordering Yucatan to the east is Quintana Roo.  Quintana Roo has the famous Riviera Maya, which contains the expat and tourist areas of Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, and others.  This area was very sparsely inhabited until recently, when the government of Mexico decided to make it into a major tourist area.  With the development of this area, the population increased, both of Mexicans and expats.  For that reason, the majority of the people who moved into Quintana Roo are not originally from the area.  

 

(Turn of the  century photo of a Yucatecans couple, pictured.)