Objective:

This article analyzes how black and mulatto leaders in Cartagena used the discourse of mestizaje to deal with the racial conflicts that existed in the city between the 1940s and 1970s. This emerging group of leaders resorted to this discourse to denounce public cases of racism and to legitimize the place that they had reached within the local society.

Methodology:

By analyzing debates in the press, official documents and literary fiction, this article shows the strategic, and often contradictory, appropriations of the discourse of mestizaje.

Originality:

Colombian historiography has focused on the study of mestizaje within the process of nation-state making and regarding citizenship, national identity and democracy. This article proposes another perspective by studying mestizaje as a mechanism used to deal with the racial tensions that took place in a local context.

Conclusions:

Due to its polysemic nature, the discourse was also invoked to deny the existence of racism and to delegitimize racial-based mobilizations, which reveals the scope and limitations of mestizaje as a discourse of contestation.