Black Neighborhoods, Picturesque Neighborhoods. Reality and imaginary social of the sub-world of Madrid (1860-1930)

The aim of this article is to analyse the social segregation process of Madrid and the construction of social imagery around the "Ensanche Sur de Madrid", which personifies the Madrilenian underworld, through a wide range of documentary sources (municipal census, judicial sources, journalistic articles, literary and journalistic tales, building plans, etc.). Comparison between social reality and their representations allow illustrate, in part, the complex development of the modernization Madrilenian urban society before the civil Spanish War.