Trafalgar

The Glorieta de Bilbao was once the Puerta de los Pozos, for here there were snow wells and threshing floors. There were also military barracks, which explains why Trafalgar evokes the battle lost against the English off the coast of Cádiz. The name comes from the Arabic taraf al-gharb, “coast of the west.” Other streets are of sieges and defeats: Sagunto, Luchana, Viriato the Lusitanian and Eloy Gonzalo, the hero of Cascorro. Palafox defended Zaragoza and Álvarez de Castro, Gerona. There are streets that honor Cortés, both with his birthplace, Medellín, and with his companions in the conquest: Olid and Quesada. Among the swords there are pens and pulpits: Garcilaso, Murillo, Feijoo, Cardenal Cisneros. Today the heart of the neighborhood is the square that bears the name of Pablo de Olavide, the Peruvian-Spanish Enlightenment reformer of the eighteenth century, where until November 2, 1974 there stood an octagonal market.