ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the different identities of the barrio in different contexts. It considers the various power relationships of many of the actors who have a hand in constructing the barrio's identity and are in turn themselves, to some extent, constructed by its identity. The 'barrio' as a spatialisation for marginals and ambiguous marginals was significantly debilitated. Hence certain 'marginal' individuals were, on a day-to-day basis, relatively confined to the barrio. More accurately, most clients were ambiguous marginals, in a number of different senses. Many of the clients were ambiguous marginals in another sense. A number of them had been employed in formal wage labour for most of their lives. The realm of prostitution as leisure is generally excluded from all discussions in academic texts of leisure. The sex workers in the barrio generally tried to keep some separation between work and home or non-work space.
