Calle de Ruiz

Until 1869 this street appeared on no map. That year the council opened several streets over the grounds of the demolished Monteleón Artillery Park and named them after those who rose on 2 May: Ruiz, Monteleón, Malasaña, Daoíz and Velarde. The man it recalls, Jacinto Ruiz y Mendoza, was a lieutenant of the Volunteers of the State. On the morning of 2 May 1808 he was in bed with a high fever; he heard the shots, dressed and set out for the barracks, where he fought beside Daoíz and Velarde for over three hours. One bullet struck his arm and another passed through his back. He survived the assault but died in Trujillo the following year, aged 29, never healed of his wounds. For decades his name stayed in shadow while Daoíz and Velarde took the official story. The street has been his since 1869, and in 1909 his remains travelled to the Monument to the Fallen for Spain, in the Plaza de la Lealtad, beside his two captains.

Lieutenant Ruiz was bedridden with a high fever in a boarding house in the Maravillas district when the uprising began. He got out of bed, put on his uniform and crossed the district on foot to the barracks that today gives the street its name. He fought until he fell with two bullet wounds, one of them passing through his thorax from back to chest. The French soldiers gave him up for dead. He survived, but died nine months later in Trujillo without having seen his name recognised.