Identidad y ciudadanía afrocolombiana en la Región Pacífica y Cali: elementos estadísticos y sociológicos para el debate de la "cuestión negra" en Colombia

public discussion on ethnic minorities in colombia it began again recent through the important juridical and political evolution traced by the new colombian constitutional law of 1991. with the recognition of multi-ethnic and cultural diversity character of the colombian society, and the multiculturalism institutionalization in the citizenship formation, colombia, like many others latin-american countries, is looking for to change the space and the condition of indians and afro-american populations into the mestizo society. in this context, this work highlights the importance of the migratory factor and the afro-colombian population's massive urbanization, in the process of construction of new "ethnic identities" and the citizenship demand, and its differentiation according to regional and local contexts. taking advantage of two statistics sources - the 1993 census, of the pacific region, and a demographics research held up in cali on 1998 -, in which were analyzed by logistics regressions, so as social anthropologic qualitative data, it was done the sociologically interpretation of the reciprocal determinations among territorial, economics and social contexts, in which can be found this population, and the many levels and modalities of self-affirmation of an "afro-colombian identity". the main conclusion is that identity affirmation forms are radically different to the pacific region population and cali's population. the first case is about an ethnic-territorial demand, whereas the second one what is at stake is the equality of opportunities to residential and labor markets, and the fight against social-racial discrimination. considering these results, the problem of accommodating the forensic mark of law 70 to the needs and aspirations of the citizen's integration of the afro-colombian population, is in new terms, particularly in the urban society.