Calle de la Estrella Hadar

Hadar burns more than three hundred and fifty light-years away, in the knee of the Centaur that the ancients drew across the southern sky. It is Beta Centauri, the second brightest star in its constellation and one of the brightest in the heavens. Anyone looking for it from Madrid will not find it: it sits too far south, hidden below the horizon. Here its light fits only on a street sign. The name comes from Arabic, with a meaning that has grown slippery over the centuries. It has been read as “to be present” or “the inhabited land,” though none prevails. The street belongs to a small firmament traced over the Legazpi district, where several neighboring streets also bear star names, such as Estrella Shaula or Estrella Polar. A corner of Arganzuela where the street map points to the southern sky.