Naranjal

Naranjal, seat of the municipality of the same name, lies just 10 km south of Córdoba at about 740 metres, on the south bank of the Río Blanco. The name means "orange grove", but coffee is what really grows here: it covers around 80% of the municipality's farmland, ahead of bananas (10%) and oranges (7%). The municipal coat of arms sums it up with the motto "Fertile and fruitful land".

For its size, the place has a long administrative history. It had its first town council in 1814; on 28 March 1831 it became a municipality under the name San Cristóbal Naranjal, within the canton of Orizaba, and on 15 January 1918 it became a free municipality. The town had 2,261 inhabitants in 2010 and is the only urban locality among the municipality's twelve, where more than 70% of people identify as of Indigenous ancestry and almost a fifth as of African ancestry.

The centre is anchored by the church of San Cristóbal, with a yellow façade trimmed in red and a single-stage bell tower facing a tree-lined forecourt; the town hall and the market are close by. In July the town celebrates its patron, Saint Christopher. On the outskirts, overgrown with vegetation, stand the remains of the old bridge that once linked Naranjal with Córdoba. The climate is mild and humid, averaging 21 °C, with very heavy rain in summer and early autumn; the Blanco and Popocatl rivers run through the municipality.