La Latina

It owes its name to Beatriz Galindo, “la Latina,” who taught Latin to Isabella the Catholic and founded a hospital around here. But officially, like its neighbor the Madrid of the Austrias, it belongs to the barrio of Palacio. It leans westward from the Vistillas, where the houses tumble down toward the river. Wine ran through the cavas and grain through the Cebada; carts and loads came down toward the Puerta de Toledo, and every August the fair climbed up with its chotis and its barrel organ. Today you go from cava to cava for tapas, lower and upper. People pray to La Paloma, dance to San Isidro, seek the angel and lose their fear of the serpent. And any saint on the calendar, the moment it looks away, ends up a fair.