Calle de la Jirafa

The name calls up the giraffe, the African mammal of the outsized neck, but the reason for the choice is not documented. No record survives of why this savanna animal was hung in a corner of the old fringe of Tetuán de las Victorias. The calle de la Jirafa is a short street of little more than a hundred meters, in the Valdeacederas neighborhood. Its surroundings tell another story. The neighboring streets are named after the Cantueso, the Plátano, the Crisantemo, the Aligustre: a herbarium sown across the map, flowers, trees and shrubs that turned this sector into a small nominal garden. Among so many plants, the giraffe stands alone. No other animal keeps it company nearby, which makes the sign more singular and, with no story behind it, more of a riddle. Under the plaque one reads the name of the tallest animal in the world on one of the shortest sidewalks in the neighborhood.