Ciudad de Rafael Lara Grajales

A railway town on the plains north-east of Puebla, Ciudad de Rafael Lara Grajales counted 10,960 residents in 2020 and sits at roughly 2,380 m, some 46 km from the state capital as the crow flies. The municipality, just 4.10 km², is split into two separate pieces divided by San José Chiapa and Nopalucan, which it borders, and had 14,052 people in 2010.

Clay vessels and figurines found in the fields suggest Nahua settlements; in the 15th century the Triple Alliance conquered the area, then known as Xalistlahuacan, "flat and sandy place", probably a stopping point for Aztec merchants heading east. The present town was born at the end of the 19th century with the Mexican Railway from Mexico City to Veracruz, which built a station here called San Marcos after the nearby hacienda of that name; later another line ran from Puebla to Xalapa, and during the Revolution the branch lines moved troops and supplies. San Marcos was formally founded on 24 March 1922, later renamed Villa Central, and on 11 September 1936 the municipality was created and named after General Rafael Lara Grajales, a congressman born in the region and murdered in 1933.

Expect cool, fairly dry weather: averages hover between 14 and 16 °C, and the yearly rainfall is only 500 to 700 mm. The land drains toward Lake Totolcingo, within the Atoyac basin.