Calle de Vara del Rey

The name recalls Joaquín Vara de Rey y Rubio, a soldier born in Ibiza in 1841 and killed in Cuba on 1 July 1898. He came from a family in uniform and fought in the Carlist wars and the cantonal uprisings of Cartagena and Valencia, before serving in the Philippines and requesting a posting in the last colonial war. His name was tied to a single day. In the village of El Caney, near Santiago de Cuba, he defended a fort without heavy artillery with little more than five hundred men against several thousand American soldiers. The assault the attackers reckoned to settle in an hour dragged on through almost the whole day. He fell wounded and died as he was carried off the field on a stretcher. In the same battle his brother Antonio and his nephew Alfredo also lost their lives. Madrid recovered him among its streets, and a nearby monument, at the junction of the avenida de la Ciudad de Barcelona and the paseo de la Reina Cristina, still recalls that stand.