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Cancún, Mexico is
in the enticing state of Quintana Roo, home to the country's Caribbean beaches,
impressive Mayan Ruins and sizzling nightlife. Quintana Roo was little more than a forgotten backwater for most
of the 19th century. So insignificant was this jungly, sparsely inhabited region in the minds of Mexican authorities
that it didn't even have an official name until 1902.
When, in 1902, it was
finally given a name and territory status, it was named after army general Andréas Quintana Roo, although he'd never served
in the territory. In the late 1960s Isla Cancún was a sliver of sand visited only by local fisherfolk and a few gringo
adventurers. When the Mexican government decided to develop a resort on the island, the channels separating it from
the mainland coast were bridged. Next, a town sprang up (where Ciudad Cancún now stands) to house Isla Cancún's construction
workers and their families.
A well-paved street bordered
by wide sidewalks was run down the centre of the island. Many hectares of mangroves and scrub brush were ripped out,
scores of gardens were planted, and 'a very towered land', as one 16th-century Spanish historian described this coast, acquired
even more towers as multistorey resorts went up.
When Cancún opened in 1974,
the carefully developed island - commonly referred to as Cancún, Isla Cancún or the Zona Hotelera - was promoted as a tropical
paradise. In short order it began attracting snowbirds from Canada and wealthy beach bums from the USA, Europe and elsewhere.
Remarkably, Quintana Roo didn't become a state until that same year. It likely wouldn't have received statehood
even then, except that the government and developers ambitiously planning Cancún agreed that the new resort town would be
difficult to promote if it were situated in a region apparently unworthy of statehood.
Despite its inauspicious beginnings,
Cancún has become one of the brightest spots on the international sun-seeker map, although many argue that high-level corruption,
the drug trade, overdevelopment and the resultant environmental pressures have spoiled the place. It came to international
attention in 2003 with the release of a movie, The Real Cancún, featuring the antics of the beach
bunny crowd, and again when it hosted a round of World Trade Organisation talks, which featured the now customary demonstrations
and ended in bitter acrimony when representatives from third world member states refused to play ball.
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