Calle de Guatemala

The name arrives from Central America. The street honours the Republic of Guatemala and belongs to a cluster of streets in the Nueva España district named after Latin American nations: nearby run Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and the Plaza de la República Dominicana. The idea was born with the district: when Chamartín de la Rosa was absorbed into Madrid in 1948 and this residential area was laid out, the street map drew a chart of the Spanish-speaking world north of the city. Behind the place name lies an old word. Guatemala comes from the Nahuatl Quauhtlemallan, which most readings translate as “place of many trees” or “place of forests”. The name spread with the Tlaxcalan troops who took part in the conquest of the region around 1520. Other interpretations exist, but the forest one is the most widespread.