Calle Los Nogales

The name recalls the walnut, the broad-crowned tree whose dried fruit, the nut, has been eaten since prehistory. The Spanish word comes from late Latin nucalis, “the size of a nut.” Why this tree was chosen for such a short street in Las Acacias is not documented. The neighborhood grew between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as an industrial area south of the river, and kept a fondness for tree names that starts with the Paseo de las Acacias. Los Nogales joins that botanical family. The walnut also carries a reputation from old: for centuries it was said that sleeping under its crown caused headaches. The tree releases through leaves and roots compounds that inhibit the growth of other plants around it, so the belief had something of real observation in it. Today the street has no walnut trees; the tree lives only on the sign.