Calle de Víctor Andrés Belaúnde

The name recalls Víctor Andrés Belaúnde Diez-Canseco (Arequipa, 1883 - New York, 1966), a Peruvian jurist, historian and diplomat who presided over the 14th General Assembly of the United Nations in 1959. He led his country’s delegation to the organization for more than fifteen years and held the presidency of the Security Council on three occasions. 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.