Calle de Tenerife

The name evokes the largest island of the Canary archipelago, the one watched over by the snow-capped Teide above the Atlantic. The aboriginal people of La Palma are said to have joined tene, “mountain,” and ife, “white”: white mountain. Why a street in Bellas Vistas ended up with this Canary name has not survived. It fits the custom that shaped the street names of this corner of Tetuán, where whole blocks took names from Spanish geography when the neighbourhood was still a shantytown of rag-and-bone men and day labourers north of Madrid. Today Tenerife has a pedestrianised stretch in the heart of Bellas Vistas. Together with Almansa and Topete it forms the so-called “little Caribbean,” with a strong Dominican presence, its shops and merengue spilling from the ground floors.