Hacienda Cacao

Hacienda Cacao is a former colonial-era henequen hacienda in Abala Municipality, Yucatan State, Mexico, built in 1889 by Jose Maria Ponce, who profited from the nineteenth century henequen boom and diversified into ice, chocolate, and brewing production. Ponce issued custom hacienda tokens the same year that are now prized by coin collectors, and a well known Yucatecan bolero was reportedly composed at the property in 1918. The hacienda suffered a violent episode in 1923 to 1924 when bandits killed its caretaker, his wife, and twenty workers. After Mexico's 1937 agrarian reform the estate was broken up into an ejido, reducing the original hacienda's private holdings to about 150 hectares.