Calle del General Gallegos

The sign gives only the rank and the surname. No documented record survives of which Gallegos the calle del General Gallegos was dedicated to, nor when or why that surname was chosen for so short a street, just over a hundred meters, in the Nueva España neighborhood. The name points to a military figure, common ground in the area’s street map, built on former land north of the paseo de la Castellana over the course of the 20th century. There was more than one Spanish general surnamed Gallegos, and the archives available today cannot say for certain which of them was set down here. The street runs into a grid named after surnames and trades, between the paseo de la Castellana and the M-30, where the quiet of the sidewalks contrasts with the traffic in the background. What remains is a general with no first name, a loose surname on the tile.