<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The new rurality, </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">depeasantization, </span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">and economic outsourcing constitute three notions that&nbsp; evidence a difficult economic, social, and spatial transformation in the traditional conceptions of&nbsp; the rural sector. Since the insertion into the world system under the label of "</span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Pueblo Mágico</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">",&nbsp; Chignahuapan, a rural Mexican community in the center of the country, has left aside the&nbsp; primary sector activities to promote the tertiary sector and has adopted tourism as the guiding&nbsp; axis of economic growth. This paper aims to make visible how the local economic&nbsp; transformation towards tourism has taken place through the commercialization of a natural&nbsp; thermal spring with healing properties, and through the manufacture of blown glass Christmas&nbsp; ornaments, an economic activity that has positioned the town in the imaginary of the country. Thus, in Chignahuapan a relationship of dependence on tourism has been generated, associated&nbsp; with the needs and demands of the two large cities of central Mexico: Mexico City and Puebla.&nbsp;</span></p>