Calle María Francisca

Calle de María Francisca runs through El Viso, in the Chamartín district, land that belonged to the town of Chamartín de la Rosa until it was absorbed into Madrid in 1948. The neighborhood owes its look to the estate Rafael Bergamín designed in the 1930s, with white houses of rationalist lines. Of the name only the sign remains. Two given names with no surname, no date, and no occupation to identify whom they referred to. There is no record of who this María Francisca was or why she was to be remembered here, so the origin of the name stays undocumented. Unlike the streets of El Viso dedicated to rivers and recognizable figures, this one keeps the anonymity of a woman’s name of which only the plaque survives.