Street Names and Nationalism

In Spain during the 20th century, the citizens experienced an incredible shift in political regimes. The country moved through a monarchy and dictatorship from 1900 to 1931, the Second Republic from 1931 to 1936, and Francisco Franco's era from 1936 to 1975 (Faraco and Murphy 2006:129). Due to this extreme regimental change, the citizens and their languages were swept up in the movements. Street names changed rapidly as political views shifted. Faraco and Murphy provide tables of examples of the changes in their article "Street Names and Political Regimes in an Andalusian Town." They trace the path of name changes from 1900-1981. One example of this change:

Alcantarilla - Jose Tejero - Nicolas Salmeron - Jose Tejero - Alcantarilla

One street name came full circle; the shifts in language use in public domain changed so rapidly and were dependent on the political party that was in power. Another street changed twenty-four times between 1900-1981 (Faraco and Murphy 2006:133). 

The language shifts depicted on public street signs were markers of the hierarchy of the language. Road and street signs are visible venues for languages.  

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Street_sign,_Alhaur%C3%ADn_de_la_Torre,_Spain_02.JPG

Faraco, J. Carlos González and Michael Dean Murphy

   1997 Street Names and Political Regimes in an Andalusian Town. Ethnology 36(2):123-48.