If you've seen a photo of downtown Mérida with two giant white S-shaped chairs in it, that was Santa Lucía. It's a small square with stone arcades, restaurants with tables outside and a church at the far end. And it's where the city sings.
A square that started out as something else
When Mérida was laid out in 1542, this space was left three blocks north of the main plaza. It wasn't a park: it was the small square of an area set aside for the Black and mulatto population the Spanish had brought over, who were not allowed into the Cathedral.
The chapel that is now the church of Santa Lucía was finished in 1575, and the southern part of its atrium served as a cemetery until 1821. In 1804 governor Benito Pérez Valdelomar turned the neglected ground into a public square. It's worth knowing: a beautiful square with a history that isn't, and both things are true at once.
Thursdays, since 1965
Since 1965, every Thursday at 21:00, the park becomes the stage for the Serenata de Santa Lucía: Yucatecan trova, trios, poetry and regional dances, backed by the city's Banda Jaranera. Outdoors, and free. Sixty years of doing the same thing on the same night of the week.
It isn't the only one. There's something on from the city council almost every night within a few blocks of here, and the whole week fits in one table.
The downtown calendar, day by day
The confidente chairs
The two white S-shaped chairs are sillas confidentes — «tú y yo» chairs, the Yucatecan seat that puts a couple face to face instead of side by side. The oversized pair was installed by Mérida's tourism department in December 2016, and they've been among the most photographed things in the city ever since.
Getting there, and where we are
The park is at Calle 60 por 55, Centro. Parceros is at Calle 62 #443, between 51 and 53: a couple of blocks on foot. That's why we say «a few steps from Parque de Santa Lucía» and never «across from the park» — we're not on the square, we're in the neighborhood.
If you're coming from the north of the city, the question is always where to leave the car. Santa Lucía has no parking of its own, but it has four lots close by.
