Calle de Romero Girón

Vicente Romero Girón was born in Valdeolivas, a village in the highlands of Cuenca, in 1835, and came to Madrid to become a lawyer and journalist. He started out writing for the democrats' press and entered politics on the left of his day: he took part in the revolution of 1854, was a deputy for Cuenca from 1869 and ended up a senator for life. His work centred on law. He wrote and translated widely on legal matters, bringing to Spain the legal currents running through Europe, and was a member of the academies of Moral and Political Sciences and of Jurisprudence. In 1883 he was minister of Grace and Justice under Alfonso XII. Years later he held the Overseas ministry between 1898 and 1899, just as Spain was losing Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines; the post administered colonies that were ceasing to be colonies. He died in Madrid a few months afterward. The street, in the Hispanoamérica district, links the Paseo de La Habana with the Calle del Padre Damián.