race, ethnicity, and political mobilization in the Andes

Appeal to ethnic or racial identity may become a basis for group cohesion and organization enhancing ability to compete politically. Blacks in Chicaloma were able to monopolize local political offices by organizing as a distinct constituency. While phenotypical distinctiveness acts as a barrier to ethnic cooptation of the more mobile, a pattern that has prevented the emergence of ethnic politics affecting Indians in the Andean countries, black identity is not emphasized because eventual assimilation of family lines is envisioned.