Calle de Víctor Andrés Belaúnde

Belaúnde (Arequipa, 1883 - New York, 1966), a historian, led Peru’s delegation to the United Nations for more than fifteen years, held the presidency of the Security Council on three occasions, and presided over the 14th General Assembly in 1959. Of his written work, the best known is Peruanidad, his most widely read reflection on his country’s identity. His presence at this spot in Madrid follows the logic of the quarter. Hispanoamérica shares out its streets among nations, cities and figures from across the Atlantic, and here the turn fell to a Peruvian who devoted his life to dialogue between states. The street was not always so named: it was once Calle de la Menta, in a former hamlet of the spot known as Las Cuarenta Fanegas, land that was almost rural until the development of the northeast, well into the 1970s, stitched it to the city.