Those Who Surround Us

Abstract

This book has been written by two co-authors, Liria Hernández and Paloma Gay y Blasco. We use two different fonts in order to make visible each of our voices. Since Liria left her Gitano environment in 2009, she has lived among Latin American and North African migrants in inner-city Madrid. The authors discuss how Liria’s sense of herself has been transformed in this cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic environment, and tell the stories of some of the people who have become important to her, including Paloma’s Payo relatives. Using interviews, they tell the stories of Liria’s Moroccan partner, of Paloma’s Spanish sister and brother-in-law, and of Liria’s new Latin American friends. Liria and Paloma put forward an account of marginality and inequality in Madrid focused on the diverse group of individuals that link them to each other.