ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the pigmentocracy is spatially coded in Cali's uneven geographies of opportunities and social suffering. It considers the role of racism in the making of Santiago de Cali/Colombia. The chapter also argues that although it does not act independently, race plays a central role in defining access to education, health, employment and the right to life itself. While analysis recognizes a growing literature on race and urban inequalities in Latin America, it also joins some recent calls for further investigation on how 'pigmentocracy' comes into play in societies where racial boundaries seem to be blurred. While the city is celebrated in salsa lyrics and, in the annual Petronio Alvarez festival, the near absence of Blacks in spaces of privilege and their overconcentration in neighborhoods plagued by unemployment, Cali may continue to be called 'the branch of paradise', but for Blacks, it is yet another hell.
