Cancún Plans Cuban Cultural Corridor on Avenida Yaxchilán to Turn Migration Into Tourism

Cancún, Quintana Roo — Cancún is preparing a Cuban cultural corridor on Avenida Yaxchilán designed to turn the city’s growing Cuban migrant presence into a tourism draw built around music, dance, art and food. The initiative, however, is taking shape against a backdrop of violence in which Cubans have appeared both as victims and as alleged perpetrators.

Carlos Armando del Castillo Álvarez, head of the Administrative Management Unit of the Proyecto Distrito Cancún, said the corridor would run along the stretch of Yaxchilán between La Parrilla and bar La Cova, with a possible extension toward Supermanzana 23 and the city’s founding zone. More than 14 businesses have already been promoted under the plan, which targets 2027 and takes Miami’s Little Havana as its model.

Del Castillo said the corridor could help curb xenophobic rhetoric by making the Cuban community’s cultural and economic contributions more visible. The area already concentrates restaurants, shops and other service businesses, and stretches toward neighborhoods such as Villas Otoch Paraíso.

An Unclear Picture of the Community

The size of Cancún’s Cuban community remains uncertain. INEGI’s 2020 census counted close to 5,000 Cubans in the city, but that figure may already be outdated. The National Migration Institute does not publish an updated breakdown by nationality, and some of the newest arrivals are believed to have entered the country irregularly. Around 25,600 foreign-born residents live in Benito Juárez, the municipality that includes Cancún, according to data cited in the project.

Regional mobility has also grown more complicated because of deportations. Human Rights Watch documented that between Jan. 20, 2025, and March 9, 2026, the United States sent nearly 13,000 third-country nationals to Mexico, with Cubans forming the largest group at an estimated 4,353 people.

Integration and Insecurity

In the labor market, many Cubans find work on delivery platforms, in restaurants and lunch counters, construction and private security. Local organizations say some work without benefits and face obstacles renting housing or finding employment. Marylín Torres Leal, president of CISVAC, warned of discrimination against members of the community.

Insecurity adds further tension. During 2026 there were reports of armed attacks in which Cubans were wounded or killed, along with arrests of Cuban nationals accused of homicides and assaults. In September, State Police also rescued four migrants who were allegedly being held and had been beaten so that their captors could demand money from their families. Officials stress that all cases must distinguish between people under investigation and those convicted.

Residents of Supermanzana 23 have demanded more security and immigration operations. In April they protested outside the municipal government building, and in October graffiti against Cubans appeared in Parque de Las Palapas. Jorge Escudero Buerba, president of the Committee for Consultation and Citizen Participation in State Public Security, warned about intermediaries who charge between 70,000 and 80,000 pesos for supposed regularization procedures.

The challenge is to build the cultural corridor without turning nationality into a marker of risk. Without an updated migration assessment, the project will move forward on estimates while the community remains exposed to violence, labor exploitation and discrimination.