Public space and Afro-Colombian informal vendors in Cali, Colombia

Abstract

25.5% of all African descendants in Colombia reside in the city of Cali representing 26% of the total population of the city. In this way, Cali is one of the cities with the highest Afro-Colombian population in the country. The city has been the principal center of attraction for migrant populations from the South Pacific Coast of Colombia in which the Afro-Colombian population is prevalent. These regions are the poorest in the country. Informal vending in Cali is carried out primarily by rural and/or internally displaced migrants. In this paper, I am interested in finding out if Afro-Colombians endure a higher marginality and discrimination rate as street vendors than the self-identified mestizos and white or if, on the contrary, both groups face similar levels of discrimination. Thus, I intend to find out if black bodies are marked by discourses of undesirability and crime in public spaces in Cali. Additionally, informal street vending is understood by urban scholars as well as the government of Cali as a class struggle. This understanding effectively deracializes the informal vending landscape, while also reifying the invisibility of black racialized bodies in equality discourses. Many authors claim that the current problem in Colombia of recognizing the diverse racial composition of informal vendors and understanding these struggles only through class impedes a well thought out discernment of the social and economic realities faced by racialized bodies in public spaces.