Subterraneans
Lilith Ray
Head popping out of a manhole in Bucharest
While the concept of people living underground seems like it came straight out of a Jordan Peele movie, around the world, notorious communities have been founded below the surface. From the United States to Europe, the quantity of these subterranean cities is truly astounding. And while the drains over in Central Park probably don’t fit the description, the number of times I’ve seen people climb in there definitely shows something is amiss.
LAS VEGAS
Underneath the Las Vegas strip with its Golden Nugget, quickie wedding chapels, and footlong Daiquiris, at least 1500 people inhabit emergency flood tunnels. It is usually parched in the Nevada desert but like the itsy bitsy spider, unexpected rain sometimes washes whole settlements away, drowning people and soiling their positions. Many of the premier tunnels leading to famous hotels like Caesars have bosses who control the area. There is a feeling of tribalism and safety in numbers, although the constant threat of heat exhaustion, police raids, and drug-related-violence is always there.
BUCHAREST
When the Soviet Union fell in 1989, orphanages across Romania were shuttered, leaving thousands of children to fend for themselves. With nowhere to go but down, the orphans took to the sewers underneath the city. Now, generations of Romanians have grown up there. Stockpiled with trash and people, the tunnels have little glamour, only providing meager heat from the steam pipes. Every piece of furniture, item of food or clothing, is scanged from the city above. Like the elite leaders in Vegas, a man called Bruce Lee who has lived in the tunnels for 24 years is in control of who comes in or out. Before reporters can interview residents, they must talk to him, an imposing silver-headed man adorned in jingling medals and flanked by a pack of dogs.
KINGSTON
Time magazine has named Jamaica as the most homophobic country in the world. Not only do they have sodomy laws and figures in the media mocking these identities but a deeply entwined culture of dancehall music promoting lyrics about “violence”, “sex”, and “masculine vigor” that often promote hate towards minorities. Where members of the LGBTQ community face harassment and brutal violence from the police and regular citizens alike, groups of gay and transgender youths have gone to the sewers to seek shelter. On the outskirts of Kingston, these queens believe in the right to live a life they are proud of, especially when so many others in their situation do not have the chance.
While research on living underground’s effects on our bodies is a burgeoning field, motivated by increasing temperatures globally, right now not much is known. In many cultures, underground symbolizes the death and in literal examples of “mole people”, their reality is not much different. Without exposure to daylight, humans can sleep for 30 hours at a time, a demotivation and lack of stimulation akin to death. For many, life in these tunnels is as inescapable.