YUCATN

estada (state), northern Yucatn Peninsula, southeastern Mexico. It is bounded on the north by the Gulf of Mexico, on the east and southeast by Quintana Roo, and on the southwest and west by Campeche. Yucatn occupied the entire peninsula when it became a state in 1824, but the secession of Campeche was ratified in 1858 and Quintana Roo was lost in 1902; later boundary changes reduced the state to its present 14,827 square miles (38,402 square km). An attempt by the governor of the state in the early 1920s to break up the large henequen plantations failed, but they were eventually expropriated in the 1930s, and many were subdivided into cooperative ejidos (common lands). Production of henequen fibre, which had reached a low level, was increased after the mid-1950s, but a program to diversify crops also was undertaken. With improved connections with mainland Mexico by railroad and highway, and especially by air, many old Mayan centres, such as Chichn Itz, Dzibilchaltn, and Uxmal, became easily accessible and tourism became important. Aside from the clusters at Mrida, the state capital, and at Progreso, the chief port, much of the population consists of rural Mayan Indians who speak little Spanish. Pop. (1990 prelim.) 1,363,540.