Calle de Ana María

The name belongs to the growth of Valdeacederas in the first half of the twentieth century, when the neighbourhood rose out of modest plots, low houses and streets opened almost as they went. In that fabric first names without surnames were common, easy to remember and to paint on a plaque, and Ana María entered the street names as one of them. Which Ana María it refers to is not recorded. There is no biography, no date, no kinship to give her a face. She may have been a popular saint, a woman tied to those who developed the land, or simply a pleasant choice for a short street. The street is one of the quiet ones, in a Valdeacederas whose name evokes a valley of sorrel, the sour herb that grew beside the streams before the houses came.