Yet the area has had a curious history, which means that it is today divided into 11 districts: the village municipality of La Carlota and ten smaller 'departments' or hamlets.

La Carlota is located in the Cordoban countryside, well south-west of the large regional capital of Cordoba, and it occupies part of the alluvial valley of the River Guadalquivir and an area of its Quaternary terraces.

The main economic activity is agriculture and traditional products: dry cereals; olive groves; vineyards; sunflowers; sugar beet; and cotton.

The production of certain high-value types of fresh agricultural produce is favoured, due to easy access to urban consumers in two provincial capitals.

This is why Central European surnames and ethnic features and characteristics are common among the inhabitants, and why pork stew and sausages boiled in wine are favourite local dishes.

Settlers were given 28 bushels of farmland, a house, household animals such as dogs, suitable agricultural implements and tax exemption for ten years.

The "Via Verde" is most visited by tourists in the springtime, when wildflowers abound, and electric bicycles are now extending the types of weather in which the path can be enjoyed as a cyclist.

Further afield, some 30 km (19 mi) away to the north are the southern parts of the Parque Natural Sierra de Hornachuelos, a National Park that is one of the best conserved areas of Mediterranean riverine upland forest, in which oaks predominate.