Prostitutas y vagabundas en las cárceles de España y Portugal durante el siglo XX. Un viaje de Madrid a Lisboa

The following work consists of a brief historical review of the experience of women imprisoned for common crimes throughout 19th and 20th century in Spain and Portugal and, more specifically, of women arrested for clandestine prostitution and vagrancy. About that, the article analyzes with special care the prisons of their respective capitals, Madrid and Lisbon, during the first half of the 20th century. In the Spanish case, the article focuses particularly on the Quiñones, Ventas andAlcalá de Henares prisons, while in the Portuguese case it deals mainly with the Lisbon prison of Mónicas, with some reference to the nearby Tires prison, in Cascais. This text aims to cast some light on a reality that, up to now, has constituted a “blind spot” of History.