THE personal experiencesand the company with which we travel through them, mark our lives to the point of making us feel like our various objectively public places. This bench witness to a teenage relationship, this corner of the bar counter where we are used to having a snack, this corner where it is inevitable for us to see the flow of a fraternity…
However, what was until now a private issue now has “public implications”. He Andalusian Institute of Statistics and Cartography (IECA) has just made official the inclusion of the first “emotional toponym” with which the name of a natural space in Malaga is modified.
The one hitherto known as Encina de la Zorrain the Puerto de la Torre district, was renamed Celia holm oak. The reason: a very personal story that does not lack mystery and mysticism.
“This place (and especially this tree) means a lot to me on an emotional level because it reminds me of a woman,” explains an Andalusian citizen who, for a long year, did not give up his efforts to obtain a change of name . He tried in various administrations and departments, but the will never worked.
From the IECA they saw fit to create “this new typology, that of emotional toponymy, because it is based on a concrete fact and responds to the endearing request of this user”, they report from this organization dependent on Ministry of the Economy, Treasury and European Funds.
This is not a change of fact, since the competent authority is the municipal authority and requires not only broad consensus but also compliance with the change requirements established by the United Nations and provide very precise documentation.
“This request seemed worthy of consideration, without contradicting the procedure for modifying toponyms for preferential use,” underlines the ministry.
Thus was born the idea of a list of emotional toponyms, in which Celia’s proposal for Green Oak was included, the first listed in the Gazetteer of Andalusia. “She also loved this place very much and I come here continually when I want to remember her,” said the promoter of the proposal which, ultimately, managed to become a symbolic pantheon of memory.
