The notion of slum refers to the neighborhood that is far from the population of which it is part. The concept is also used to name the end of a locality and the population that is annexed to another of a larger size.
For example: “Tango arose in the suburbs of the city”, “I lost my job and had to move from the center to settle in the suburb”, “If we continue walking, we will end up in the suburb”.
It can be said that the suburb idea is linked to urban design. It is understood that a suburb is a group of houses that arises spontaneously, without planning. The suburbs are created from the uncontrolled growth of a city, which begins to expand geographically. In general, people from the lower class settle in the suburbs who do not have the economic resources to live in the city, but need to be close to it.
According to DigoPaul, the term suburb began to be used with respect to the urban development of the medieval cities of Europe. Once the lands located inside the walls became insufficient to house the population, annex towns began to develop outside the walled space. Over the years, these walls were often modified to include the suburbs.
A slum can be associated with a suburb or a neighborhood. Often the suburbs are linked to marginality, poverty, lack of control and assistance by the State. Other synonyms by which people often refer to this concept are “outskirts, outskirts, periphery, surroundings, widening, alfoz, vicinity” and “surrounding”. Among the main antonyms we can mention “urban area” and “center”.
The people who live in the periphery, in fact, tend to be those with the least economic power, although many times there is also the search for greater tranquility that the urban area is unable to provide to its inhabitants, given the cacophony of engines, horns and noise., often crowned by environmental pollution and diseases that arise as a result of waste accumulation.
For people from the lower classes, life in the suburb can be very hard, especially if they have the obligation to travel to the city center every day to carry out their jobs. Although this depends on the economic situation and the development of each country, and may even vary from one city to another, long transfers from one end to the other can be exhausting and lead to great waste of time due to the unpunctuality of the public transport companies.
On the other hand, the sections that connect the suburb to the center are not usually very safe, but become the focus of assailants of all kinds, something that adds certain risks to the wear and tear already mentioned of travel and waiting.
Finally, Fernando Arrabal is a novelist, poet, essayist, playwright and filmmaker who was born on August 11, 1932 in Melilla (Spain). Since 1955, he lives in France and in 1963 he founded the movement known as the Panic Group together with Roland Topor and Alejandro Jodorowsky. It is an intense search to reach beyond Aristotelian society and to bequeath to humanity something that impels it to acquire a new perspective.
His friends included Tristan Tzara and Andy Warhol, and he was linked to the surrealist group led by André Breton for three years, which is why the American critic Mel Gussow considered him the only survivor of the group he was referring to by the name of « the four avatars of modernity ».
