Calle Antonio Gómez Galiana

Antonio Gómez Galiana gives his name to a short street in Bellas Vistas, barely eighty-eight meters within the fabric of Tetuán. Who this man was is not documented: no record of him survives, no date or trade to explain why his name ended up on a plaque in this corner of the district. The silence fits the way the neighborhood grew. Tetuán was born on the edge of Madrid when the army returning from the African war in 1860 camped north of the city. Many of those streets took the surnames of owners, residents or small developers who parceled out the land, people who left their name on the map and little more in memory. Antonio Gómez Galiana seems one of those cases. Whoever reads it on the corner will find no statue and no story, just a double surname held up by habit.