Paseo de Montejo Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico MERIDA OLIGARCHY: The Medina family was owner of the house and was one of the oligarchic familes of the Yucatan. The Peón family was one of the "Divina casta" families at the top of the heap in Merida. The Peón family arrived in the 18th century, late for these "24 families", and were pioneers of the Henequen trade in the 19th Century. They owned a large number of haciendas, where the workers, Mayans, were typically basically slaves. These families intermarried among themselves or went to Spain, Cuba etc. looking for 'white' wives. The family included José Peón Contreras, intellectual, and Carlos Peón Machado, Governor of the state Mexico 2015 816