Calle de Andrés Torrejón

The street bears the name of Andrés Torrejón García (Móstoles, 1736-1812), ordinary mayor of Móstoles for the noble estate who, on 2 May 1808, together with Simón Hernández, co-signed the so-called Proclamation of the Mayors of Móstoles. That document, drafted by Juan Pérez Villamil, warned the towns along the royal road to Extremadura of the French slaughter in Madrid and called them to arms. It is considered the first official act of institutional resistance against the Napoleonic occupation in Spain. The street lies in the Pacífico neighborhood, and its parallel is calle de Simón Hernández, honoring the other signer of the proclamation.

The Pacífico neighborhood was developed in the second half of the 19th century, south of the Retiro, and received a set of streets full of names from the Peninsular War. This one fits there, recalling Andrés Torrejón García, while its parallel honors Simón Hernández. The two men signed the Móstoles proclamation. Torrejón was ordinary mayor of Móstoles on 2 May 1808, when he was brought a text drafted to rouse the towns along the road to Extremadura. He and Hernández signed it before a notary, and a rider carried it south, changing horses at each post station, reaching Badajoz in two days. That paper set off the mobilization that began the Peninsular War. Murat summoned and jailed them for sedition; they saved their necks by declaring that a stranger had forced them to sign. Torrejón died in Móstoles in 1812, of hunger, like a hundred and ninety other townspeople.

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