You will have noticed, dear reader, that in our neighbourhood, as in so many others, the names of certain streets, squares or promenades change over time, depending on who is in power – and perhaps also on passing fashions.
To begin with, this causes no small amount of trouble for residents who have to update their details, for visitors who get lost trying to find their way by memory rather than using Google Maps, and for postmen who are used to the old street map.
The reality is usually that most long-time locals ignore the new renamings and continue to call the streets by the names they’ve always used. But what is the criterion for assigning—and also replacing—one name with another? Let’s give it a little thought; not too much, though.
For historical reasons? For example, the neighbourhood’s main square is called Poeta Boscà, although we all know it as La Repla. But, of course, there is a long-standing local tradition of reading the work of the 16th-century poet who – to quote Wikipedia – “is known primarily for having introduced Italianate metre, as well as Petrarchism, into Castilian poetry alongside Garcilaso de la Vega”.
On merit? I’m not the one to question the merit of the young militiaman Miquel de Pedrola, who died at the front, but I am the one who thinks that a certain Mossèn Pau might deserve more than just a plaque…
For recognition? We’ll all have our own candidates. Some will say Silvestre Sánchez or Alfonso Cánovas, whilst others will have their own, and so on for every resident. But how many people voted for any of the recently renamed streets, when so few residents know who those people were or what they had done?
For your information, these changes are decided by a council committee called the Nomenclature Committee. And on that committee, naturally, there is never anyone from the neighbourhood. Can you imagine naming your child without anyone asking you what name you’d like to give them? Well, it’s something like that.
From all this, at least two clear conclusions can be drawn. One, to have a street named after you, you must already be dead and have been so for more than five years, lest someone should take it into their head to resurrect you. And two, you cannot have been an admiral. Just ask Admiral Cervera, Admiral Aixada or Admiral Churruca.
