Calle Cruz del Sur

In the sky of the southern hemisphere there is no pole star to mark the way. There is, instead, a cross: four bright stars set in an X shape that, by extending its longer arm about four and a half times, point to the south celestial pole. Polynesian navigators first, and fifteenth-century Iberians later, learned to read that sign when the Big Dipper had already vanished below the horizon. From that constellation, the smallest in the modern sky, this street takes its name. The naming fits its surroundings. The Estrella neighborhood dedicated its streets to the firmament: alongside Cruz del Sur stand Sirio, Estrella Polar, Perseo, Los Astros and Pez Volador. By late 1962 the six white-brick, fourteen-story towers that rise on this street were nearly finished. The constellation that names them is not visible from the latitude of Madrid, too far north to watch it rise.