Travesía de Pando

Pando is one of those words that country speech kept better than the city. The adjective describes ground that lies almost flat between two slopes, and also water that runs slowly, gentle as it crosses the low land. From there it came to name places and, later, the odd street. Why it was applied to this travesía in Valdeacederas is not documented. When the neighborhood joined Madrid, after the annexation of Chamartín de la Rosa, the duplicated streets had to be renamed, and many nearby took the names of flowers. Pando breaks that botanical pattern and points to the soil. The place name Valdeacederas, “valley of the sorrels,” spoke of farmland long before the houses arrived. Barely ninety meters of asphalt, wedged between blocks. In five letters it holds a word the farmer used for the flat ground he treads.