History

In prehispanic times, there was a great deal of Mayan commerce and constuction, but only small potshards remain to inform us of the rich archeological history of Xcalak. The peninsula had a large Mayan population and Xcalak was one of a string of active ports around the Yucatan Penisula where maritime commerce on a grand scale occured.

Perhaps 1500 years later, Governor Porfirio Diaz designed a strategy to maintain sovereignty of the state of Quintana Roo during the Caste Wars between Mexican-Mestizos and Maya. As part of this plan, he commanded that a port be built in the area known as Xcalak. The goal of the occupation was to halt the flow of arms to the rebel Maya. The port also supported the transfer of merchandise from Payo Obispo across to the Bay of Chetumal.

And so it was that on May 19th, 1900, the community of Xcalak was founded and developed as a town, whose principal activity was the extraction of copra and, on a lesser scale, fishing. During the 1900's, Xcalak had a population of around 1800 people with wooden houses in the Belizean style and a solid economy. As one of the more important regions in the south of the state, the town sported an ice factory, restaurants and hotels, and extensive copra plantatations.

However, the life of Xcalak was to be changed by the arrival of hurricane Janet on the 27th of September, 1955. With winds of more than 200 km/h, the hurricane left only 100 people alive and destroyed the coconut plantations that had sustained the economy. Xcalak was declared a disaster zone and the survivors emigrated to Chetumal, Cozumel and Valladolid.

Few families were able to stay, reconstruct their homes and return to fishing as a way of making a living -- there were no longer any copra plantations and so no jobs. Little by little people from Belize, Honduras and Salvador -- people as different from Xcalak residents as people are different in the states of Quintana Roo, Veracruz and Tabasco -- moved there. More recently immigrants from Spain and the United Stated have arrived and the population of Xcalak is now about 360 residents.

While Bahia Blanca develops its tourism business, fishing continues to be the principal economic activity and the Xcalak fisherman's cooperatives formed in the late 1950's and early 1960's ("Andres Quintana Roo" and "Banco Chinchorro") remain active. Most residents of Xcalak continue to be fully dependent upon the seasonal harvest of lobster and conch, as well as fish, for their income.