Vallecas, identidades compartidas, identidades enfrentadas: La ciudad, el pueblo y el campo, el suburbio y el barrio

Abstract

The diverse symbolic representations of the identities of Vallecas, currently as well as in the past (part of the countryside of Madrid in the Muslim period, a village near the state capital in the Early Modern period, the workers’ slum by the Bridge of Vallecas that emerged in the mid 1800s, the relationships that accrued since then between this new community and the village, which after 1950 became two separate districts within the municipality of Madrid, etc.) are herein analyzed by the author, who focuses on the continuity, accumulation and transformation of these identities through time. In addition, she calls attention to the ways in which each of them has brought about reactions of differentiation, assimilation or conflict vis-à-vis other identities as well as the social universe outside, especially other neighborhood in Madrid.