Calle Franco

This short street runs within the El Viso estate, the expansion of rationalist villas Rafael Bergamín built between 1933 and 1936, still under the Second Republic. Given that date, one thing should be cleared up at the outset: the sign does not recall the general who years later would name so many of the country’s avenues, but someone surnamed Franco whose given name the plan never fixed. Who that Franco was has not reached us. No written record survives of the reason for the dedication. The surroundings do offer a hint of atmosphere. El Viso filled with intellectuals and artists, and its street registry followed that calling: nearby run the streets dedicated to Daniel Urrabieta, the illustrator who signed as Daniel Vierge, and to Francisco Alcántara, an art critic. Other streets take the names of rivers: Tormes, Sil, Turia, Nervión. In that neighborhood, the bare Franco gives no clue about its namesake.