Plaza de Francisco Morano

Before bearing an actor’s name, this square opened at the crossing of the baroque paseo Imperial and paseo de los Pontones, where old southern Madrid was filling with housing and factories. In 1932 it was dedicated to Ramón y Cajal, but when a modern avenue inherited that name it had to be renamed, and in 1963 it came to recall Francisco Morano y Moreno, Paco Morano to the public. Morano was born in Madrid in 1876 and started at the bottom, as a callboy: the one who from the wings tells each actor the exact moment to step on stage. He made his debut in San Juan, Puerto Rico, settled in Barcelona, joined María Tubau’s company and rose until he founded his own. His fame came from a grand-repertoire, naturalist theater: Calderón’s mayor, Molière’s miser, Shakespeare’s Othello, which he took to stages across Spain and Argentina. He died in Barcelona in 1933.