Kanasín (Mexico)

Kanasín (In the Yucatec Maya language: "tense or strongly tightened") is a city in the Mexican state of Yucatán and the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. It is located in the northwestern region of the state, forming part of the Mérida metropolitan area. According to the 2020 census carried out by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), it had a population of 139,753, making it the second largest Yucatecan city after Mérida, the 8th most populous in southeastern Mexico and the 101st most populous in the country. In pre-Columbian times, the space that the city currently occupies was located in the ancient Mayan chiefdom of Chakan. Kanasín was established around the mid-16th century under the encomienda tributary system following the Spanish conquest of Yucatán. The name of the city derives precisely from a Mayan language term used to name a plant with reddish flowers that grows in the area. In 2007, it officially received city status. At the end of 2021, it hosted the First Ibero-American Meeting of Poetry. Today, it is a significant development pole as an industrial corridor for the state, together with the nearby city of Umán, which is also a suburb of Mérida.