Calle Fivé

The calle de Fivé is a minor street in the Hispanoamérica neighborhood, in the Chamartín district, around Alfonso VIII. “Fivé” matches no common Spanish word and its origin is undocumented: no record survives of the reason for the choice or of whom or what it refers to. The surrounding streets bear the names of American places, such as Costa Rica or La Paz, in keeping with the neighborhood’s naming. Fivé does not clearly fit that repertoire, and giving it a definite origin would mean assuming what no evidence supports. What can be verified is its scale: a short, quiet street in northern Madrid, easy to cross without noticing the sign, with a name of five letters and two syllables whose meaning remains unexplained.