Acción colectiva en el pacífico sur colombiano: experiencias del proceso de comunidades negras (PCN)

What collective actions have sponsored the "awakening" of Colombia's South Pacific as an ethnic region in recent times? The purpose of this article is to answer this question. To this purpouse, collective action is conceived as a process of articulation of subjects based on specific meanings and practices nucleated from the reflexive bonds that emanate from social interaction. In an operative way, four main "scopes" are recognized at the moment of investigating social mobilization: beliefs, actions, alliances and networks. From the methodological point of view, a qualitative approach is favoured, inspired by the world of subjective significance. In particular, the research process that gave rise to this article was structured on the basis of events, expert accounts and experiences. This methodological triad was carried out through in-depth interviews and conversation groups. Three Community Councils of the Colombian South Pacific were privileged to carry out the fieldwork. Perhaps, one of the main findings of the work refers to the fact that the emergence of the Colombian South Pacific as an ethnic region depended on the structure of political opportunity that opened the establishment and implementation of the National Constituent Assembly in 1991. However, it is pertinent to note that the progress made in guaranteeing the rights to territories and culture that traditionally identify the inhabitants of the Colombian South Pacific have been threatened by the war that has been unleashed in the region since the end of the twentieth century.