the new planned resort community of Cancún in the 1980s, making tourism a major force in the economy of the Yucatán Peninsula. The first Maya governor of Yucatán, Francisco Luna Kan, was elected in 1976. Today, the Yucatán Peninsula is a major tourism destination, as well as home to one of the largest indigenous populations in Mexico, the Maya people. Geography The State of Yucatán is located on the Yucatán Peninsula. It borders the states of Campeche to the southwest, Quintana Roo to the east and southeast, and the Gulf of Mexico to the north and west. As a whole, the state is extremely flat with little or no topographic variation, with the exception of the Puuc hills, located in the southern portion of the state. Demography Major cities and towns Languages The most widespread indigenous language of Yucatán is Yucatec Maya, spoken natively by approximately 800,000 people in Yucatán and adjacent Quintana Roo and Campeche, especially in rural areas. The Spanish spoken in Yucatán has lexical and some phonological borrowing from Mayan and employs many words of Mayan origin, such as ("fat"), ("navel") and ("urinate"). Korean immigration In 1905, 1,003 Korean immigrants, which included 802 men and 231 women and children, departed from the port of Chemulpo, Incheon aboard the ship Ilford to Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, Mexico. The journey took 45 days, after which they took a train to Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz. In the Veracruz port, another boat was taken to the port of Progreso with the final destination being the capital city of Mérida, Yucatan. They arrived in May 1905, with previously signed contracts for four years' work as indentured laborers on the Yucatán henequen haciendas. Many of these Koreans were distributed throughout the Yucatán in 32 henequen haciendas. The town of Motul, Yucatan, located in the heart of the henequen zone, was a destination for many of the Korean immigrants. Subsequently, in 1909, at the end of their contracts, they began a new stage in which they scattered even further. Thus, the majority of those who came were single men who made or remade their family lives with Yucatecan especially Maya women. While Korean girls were much more subject to marriages arranged by Korean parents, males had greater freedom when it came to making a family. This rapid intermarriage by Koreans, coupled with geographic dispersal, prevented the establishment of close social networks among these migrants and therefore provided