Calle de la Alfalfa

The word alfalfa comes from Hispanic Arabic alfáṣfaṣa and names Medicago sativa, a deep-rooted legume that greens the fields several times a year and that for centuries fed the livestock of half of Spain. Its place on the map is no accident: this corner of Valdeacederas gathers streets named after cultivated plants, and nearby runs the calle de las Almortas, another dryland legume. Together they recall what was here before the asphalt. The neighborhood’s own place-name confirms it. Valdeacederas means “valley of the sorrels,” for the sour herb that grew in these hollows. The area, on the slope dropping toward the stream, filled with market gardens worked by day laborers and immigrants long before it was built up. No record survives of the exact moment or the precise reason alfalfa was chosen for this street. It fits, in any case, the municipal habit of naming new streets after the local vegetation.