This book is about a population of drug-dependent people locked out of society who survive in the dark corners at the edge of the city of Madrid in Spain. We spent two years with these people, studying how the space in which they occupy came to be, how they had come to find themselves in this area, and what daily life was all about for them. Without giving the story away, from the outset we can say that their desolate misery is related to having fallen foul of various social, political and economic processes which, over time, have been internalised and reproduced in a destructive form of drug use that compromises their own health and wellbeing. In this area, Valdemingómez, they work/live side by side with the gypsies (gitanos hereafter), seen as another socially defunct group, that habitually inflict suffering and violence on them. They are also regulated by corrupt police forces, and are assisted on a daily basis by the limited intervention of the Agencia Antidroga (Anti-Drugs Agency) (‘harm reduction team’ hereafter). Without further ado, we introduce you to these people and their dilemmas. Welcome to their world. Welcome to Valdemingómez.

Meet Juan and Julia

As we speak with Juan, Julia nervously comes out of the tent with a loaded heroin syringe wedged behind her ear; she stands next to us, furiously biting her nails and looking into the distance, as if her mind is elsewhere on the horizon. To us, it seems obvious now. Suddenly, Juan changes the subject and recalls how last summer the police raided four houses on the same day in the main street of Valdemingómez (Photo 1), and in the process, arrested an entire gitano family for drug trafficking charges. There is then a silence as he sits down and starts to rub his face and scratch his wiry hair. He looks around as if he is to break the secret of the meaning of life, pauses, looks up at us, and tells us that Julia is between three to four months pregnant. That's his estimate anyway.