Travesía de los Nueve

Barely seventy meters of asphalt link the calle de la Genciana with the calle de la Guzmania, near Pinos Alta, in a corner of Valdeacederas where nearly every street bears a plant’s name. Amid so much gentian and bromeliad, this little lane breaks the rule with a figure: the Nine. The neighborhood grew in the late nineteenth century as a suburb of old Tetuán, with plots sold off piecemeal and streets named on the fly. No official record survives of the reason for this nine. The likeliest guess is that the figure refers to a numbering of plots or to a lot now forgotten, but not even that is documented. What remains is an enameled plaque with a number and no written story behind it.