When the Periphery was City. Imaginary and Urban Modernization in Matadero's Neighborhood

In the context of the Chilean capital's expansion during the first decades of the twentieth century and of the periphery turning into a city, this article analizes the urban and social imaginaries of the popular sectors that inhabitated Matadero neighbourhood and its surroundings, and its views about the processes of modernization. Considering literary sources, it is proposed that these processes, further to limit to the consolidated city, must be understood by examining the critical view about the social conditions of the periphery. It was in the periphery were deep demographic changes were expressed, and where professionals concentrated their critical diagnosis and, therefore, where the State was interpelled to provide solutions to hygienic and housing problems in the context of the increasing social demands. In this sense, it is proposed that the imaginaries or representations that show the literary sources, pick up not only the central components in this sector of Santiago, but also confirm both the material and cultural dimension of the process.