The Puuc Route Deep in Maya Country
In Santa Elena, only 8.7 miles (14 kilometers) east of the Uxmal Archeological site, I met a young man named Miguel. When he said his last name I wasn’t sure if I had heard it correctly so repeated it as “Ulk.”
He corrected me by saying, “‘Ooc,’ spelled ‘U-c.’ It is a Maya name.”
A Maya name. I felt excited because I was looking for genuine Maya people.
“Do you speak Mayan?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied. “But my mother speaks better.”
However, his mother was too shy to speak on camera so she stayed in the background and added suggestions in Spanish and Mayan as he spoke in an accented English.
We were on the Puuc Route deep in Maya country in the State of Yucatan. The Uc family owned a restaurant and gift shop where they sold wood carvings of Maya dieties.
I felt excited. If Miguel’s surname was Uc, his family must be original inhabitants of whole Puuc region since their name was part of the name of the region. I also felt grateful to learn how to pronounce Puuc correctly. I had been pronouncing it as “Puke.” Now I knew it was pronounced “Pook.”
