ABSTRACT
This chapter describes and analyzes the emergence of the social movement of black communities in the southern Pacific coast region of Colombia. It analyzes the national conjuncture of the constitutional reform of 1991 that propitiated the structuration of the movement, focusing on the negotiated elaboration of the law of cultural and territorial rights for the black communities. The chapter examines the movement as an ethno-cultural proposal, emphasizing the politico-organizational principles developed as a result of massive collective mobilization around Ley 70. It suggests ways of thinking about the political from the perspectives of territory, nature, and culture. The social movement of the Pacific black communities is endowed with very particular features arising from the historical, cultural, ecological, and economic specificity of the region. The movement constitutes a complex process of construction of ethnic and cultural identity in relation to novel variables such as territory, biodiversity, and alternative development.
