Rancho los Madroños

Villa del Carbón is a municipality located in the northern part of Mexico State, just northwest of Mexico City. While the town and municipal seat of Villa del Carbón is the largest in the municipality, it is not the oldest. The municipality contains a number of villages of Otomí and Nahua origins, in which much of the indigenous culture still survives. The municipality's territory was defined in 1714 when a region known as Chiapan, split into what is now Chapa de Mota and Villa del Carbón. At that time, however, the community which is now a municipal seat did not have an official name; it was known first only by the name of its church Nuestra Señora de la Peña de Francia, and later by being a major supplier of charcoal. This would lead to the name of Villanueva del Carbón de Nuestra Señora Santa María de la Peña de Francia, which eventually shortened to Villa del Carbón. The major portions of the municipality's glyph, which serves as it coat-of-arms, does not reflect the town of Villa del Carbón but rather two of its oldest communities: Taxhimay and San Lorenzo Pueblo Nuevo.