After more than a year closed, Mérida Bars and Cantinas are finally reopening

Popular establishments in the Historic Center will be able to operate at 50 percent capacity

Merida, Yucatan, (September 21, 2021).- Since last Saturday 18th, owners of bars and cantinas in Mérida were notified that they could resume their activities as of Monday, September 20 and operate at 50 percent of their capacity. The foregoing, as part of the new measures ordered by the state authorities aimed at economic reactivation statewide.

Emblematic taverns of the Historic Center such as La Negrita (62 x 49 street) and El Dzalbay (64 x 53 street) announced through their social networks the return to their activities.

Another popular establishment that would reopen its doors in that area of ​​the city is the El Cardenal cantina (63 x 70 street), as a job application appears on its Facebook page since Monday afternoon.

The bars and cantinas located in other neighborhoods also have the permission to reopen their doors, such as the Leoncitos bar and cocktail bar, which since Monday received its customers with the traditional ‘Frijol con Puerco’; and Bar Alonzo, which restarts activities next Wednesday in the north of the Yucatecan capital.

“We are very happy” celebrated an old bartender whose business is in the first square of Merida and who preferred to remain anonymous: “they are still giving us a chance and we need to go back to work,” he justified.

A local businessman recalled that they had been unable to work for a year and a half, a situation that “put in trouble” hundreds of families who depend on this activity. In that sense, he regretted that not all his colleagues enjoyed the same fate and several found it necessary to lower the curtain permanently.

“Many of the colleagues could no longer pay the rent,” he explained, recalling that the vast majority of these places operate in rental premises, so in many cases they depended on the will of the landlords to continue operating. 

“Those who did not reach an agreement were those who closed,” said this bartender who has also participated in various movements that sought to reactivate this sector in previous months, including in front of the government palace.

The interviewee pointed out that, to allow the reopening of bars and cantinas, the authorities determined that they most to operate at 50 percent of their capacity and taking care of aspects such as healthy distance, the use of face masks and antibacterial gel. 

Source: La Jornada Maya