Until 1892, the town was named San Francisco de los Patos and had been the headquarters for two of the largest estates in all of the Americas.

Urdiñola began what came to be called the Marquisate of San Miguel de Aguayo which, after bankruptcy, was purchased by the Sánchez Navarro family in 1840.

[2][3] The town of General Cepeda is located about 50 kilometres (31 mi) in straight-line distance west of the state capital of Saltillo.

[5] General Cepeda is on the southern edge of the Chihuahua Desert and has a Köppen classification BSh climate (warm, semi-arid steppe), although its annual average precipitation of 347 millimetres (13.7 in) is barely more than the upper limit of precipitation of BWh (desert) climates.

Under the Trewartha system, the climate is classified as BWab (semi-arid steppe with hot summers and warm winters).