Sergio Galarza Reflects on Summer in Madrid's Moscardó Neighborhood

In a series by elDiario.es, four writers explore urban life during summer when residents leave for vacations. Peruvian writer Sergio Galarza, currently in Lima, writes about Madrid, where he is about to return after brief holidays. He observes that summer reminds him he is not from there: from July, retirees and Spanish families in his neighborhood vanish from the streets. He only encountered this migratory phenomenon after moving to Moscardó in Usera. While those families have villages to retreat to, he only has two air conditioners to endure the increasingly suffocating heat. In Lima, his hometown, it is the wealthy who evaporate in summer, as they are nearly the only ones with beach houses. In contrast, Moscardó's retirees have always been what was called the working class. These men and women arrived from various regions of Spain, and their summer exodus highlights the socio-economic contrasts between the two cities.