The article presents the results of applying the conceptual and methodological framework of urban imaginaries of a case study on the city of Quito as a useful tool in order to understand how the sociospatial segregation that has historically characterized the capital of Ecuador is represented. The findings suggest that the spatial assignment constitutes a key element for the imaginaries that give meaning to the intra-urban boundaries and thus the imaginary productions allow us to reconstruct, on a symbolic level, the tensions that social and spatial inequalities entail.