The following information is guaranteed to be either true, not true, or almost true, as the people of Mayan descent, being of a rather friendly and courteous nature, would rather invent details than disappoint their visitors by saying they don't know. The following report is based on conversations with local people during several trips to Chunkanan , which  is near the town of  Cuzama, which is near the city of Acanceh, which is not far from Merida in the great state of Yucatan which is found on the central portion of the peninsula of the same name  located in the southeast of the republic of Mexico.
 

We start our adventure from Chunkanan on a small flatbed of wood, formerlly used to bring the henequen in from the sometimes far-off fields.
	Across fields of henequen that are still harvested on a regular basis,we ride on the hard wooden platforms, pulled by a skeletal horse on narrow-gage railraid ties.
As the "campesino" struggles to keep the¨"truck" on the uneven rails, he talks to me about his town of 50 families or so and explains the production at the hacienda.
	The harvest takes place three times a year, he explains.  At this time, the owners of the land will cut from 3 to 5 leaves off each plant.  Some of the greedy ones have cut more, thus killing a plant that has taken 7 years to reach the maturity to be harvested.  A properly cared-for plant will produce for 15 to 20 years.
The "leaves" are gathered together into bunches of 40.  These bunches are then sectioned off into piles of 25, constituting a "millard."  They will be stacked onto a flatbed like the one we are riding, and taken to the local "casa de maquinas," the machine house, or fiber-processing factory.
The harvester will be paid according to the net weight of his "defibered" leaves.  Good quality henequen will produce 25 kilos for each "millard," lower qualities only 22.  At current prices of 4 pesos a kilo, a millard can bring a worker from 88 to 100 pesos.	An average worker harvests about 50 millards off his part of the land in one harvest, thus earning  between 4400 and 5,000 pesos.  There are three harvests in each year, so the average income is around 14,000 for the year-- around 1,300 US dollars.
	Owned by a land magnate in colonial times, the factory and much of the land has been redistributed to the local people.  The manager of the factory is elected to a term of 3 years; the current manager has been in charge for 8 years, because everyone thinks  he is "doing a good job." It is the job of the manager to supervise the plant, hire workers, and find the best buyer for the finished fibers.
At one time the plants were run by steam, so smokestacks are an easy way to spot haciendas from a distance.  Now the machinery is mainly run by gasoline-powered equipment, remniscent of the days before electric lines were brought out to the small towns of Yucatan.
	As more leaves are brought in from the fields, the workers struggle to keep up, feeding leaves to the noisy machines and then gathering up the green fibers.
The waste, a worm stick green goo, is drained into pits that run away from the factory, while the odiferous solids are carted off in "vagos."
	The fibers are then taken off to fields of drying racks to be bleached to a white color in the hot Mexican sun.  The racks are sectioned off for each farmer.
Some of the fibers will be taken next door to be wound into rope or twine, which will be sold locally.
When asked if that is what he uses to harness his horses, my guide answers, perhaps with a touch of pride, "No, this is plastic."