Calle de Diego de León

A street opened in the Marquis of Salamanca’s new avenues from 1860, when the Ensanche was starting to string its blocks eastward. It crosses the district from west to east, from Serrano to Francisco Silvela. Whoever named it wanted to remember a soldier whose execution had inflamed the army. Diego de León took up arms in 1822 and his service record reads like an adventure script. At Los Arcos, on 2 September 1835, he held off the charge of fourteen Carlist battalions and five hundred horse with just 72 riders; that impossible afternoon earned him the Laureate Cross of San Fernando. In 1841 he joined the moderate uprising against regent Espartero, but the assault on the Royal Palace broke against the halberdiers. He was captured, court-martialled and shot on 15 October 1841, with Espartero rejecting every pardon, even the one signed by Isabella II herself. Before the volley, the general looked at the firing squad and asked for good aim: “Don’t tremble, aim for the heart.” The phrase passed from mouth to mouth and made him a liberal martyr.