CALLEJÓN MAQUILA

Between the Aclles of Herradores and that of Manuel de Ossuna, there is a small alley that is very old, already appearing in the Torriani map. Today it is a pedestrian alley and is known by everyone as alley of Maquila, for a food house run by a popular lagoon nicknamed that way.

Knowing where the name of that alley comes from has been a difficult task, in the opinion of Carlo Garc in his book on the old streets of La Laguna.

The difficulty according to Carlos Garc a is given by mentioning Rodr Guez Moure, in his Guide to La Laguna, a street that he calls from the M quina or from San Mart n and that by the geographical description comes to be located in this alley .

According to Carlos Garc, he maintains two theories on the subject. One is that there could be an error of transcription of the word, or there could be a printing error in the Rodriguez Moure Guide, which instead of saying Maquila, appeared. And another may be that it derives from the first mill installed in the steam-powered lagoon, which was located on this site and operating until 1913. The street of the machine, -of steam-, is understood, and that is how the chronicler picked up.

And it is not that the alley bears the name for being in it the food house mentioned above, but on the contrary. It seems that the nickname or definition of the person is imposed because this is the street or the place where Maquila was held .

And the maquila is nothing more than the part of the ground grain that the miller remains in payment for the work of the milling. And this was the sit ...