A slum is precarious housing.
A slum is a precarious house or house installed outside the law. The term came to our language from the Latin word tugurĭum .
Depending on the context, the idea of a slum can refer to a box , a room or an establishment where illegal products can be found. For example: “There is no electricity or drinking water in the neighborhood slums,” “I have to start saving some money: I don't want to spend my old age in a slum,” “The police raided a slum where drugs were sold.”
Slums and urban planning
The concept can be linked to homes that are built beyond the urban planning standards of a region.
Slums arise when people do not have the possibility of accessing decent housing and that is why they end up in irregular settlements, which are known as emergency slums , favelas or shacks depending on the country.
Unmet basic needs
Those who live in a slum usually have their basic needs unsatisfied: these houses generally lack electrical service, sewers and gas connection. The slums are also built with less resistant materials and usually have reduced stability.
There are numerous campaigns that seek to raise awareness among the population of the reality that exists in poor neighborhoods , where pollution, lack of resources, crime and discrimination reign. While the great cities of the world are all different and are distinguished by their architecture, their monuments and their means of public transportation, the slum is practically the same in any country, and they always seek to leave it under the shadow, far from the route traveled by the tourist buses.
Slum dwellers find it difficult to meet their basic needs.
Slum in colloquial language
In the same way as with terms such as abuse , death , illness and poverty , among many others, it is more common to use slum in an exaggerated way than precisely: we use it to criticize the lack of order or hygiene in a well-built house with basic services more often than to talk about own housing in an emergency village.
Although this does not occur in all cultures , several Spanish-speaking countries tend to use language disproportionately and carelessly, as can be seen in the following examples: "As soon as I saw him enter the office, I almost had a heart attack." , "He can't talk to you like that, that's abuse," "Your house is a real dump, let's see if you decide to put some order in." Exaggeration as a basic component of communication may seem funny or attractive to some, but offend those who are really going through extreme situations.
Other meanings of the term
As a place where illicit activities take place, a slum can open the doors to the marketing of drugs or contraband merchandise, in addition to clandestine gambling, to name a few possibilities.
Another meaning of this term, although the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy does not take it into account, speaks of a very low -class bar , generally lacking in hygiene and with an appearance that leaves much to be desired. In fact, it is common to find this meaning in everyday speech: "We went out a while before dawn and fell into a slum that is near the park," "Adolfo is a disaster, always drowning in some slum ! " "Are you thinking of taking your partner to that dump?!" .
"The Slum" by Osvaldo Bayer
“The tugurio” , on the other hand, is the name with which the Argentine writer Osvaldo Bayer (1927-2018) baptized his house in the City of Buenos Aires .
The author of “Rebel Patagonia” opted for this name, suggested by fellow writer Osvaldo Soriano , since it seemed nice to him given the usual disorder of books , magazines and papers in his home.