The main purpose of this article is to discuss the social-spatial processes of identification through the study of different ethnic-racial qualification of spaces and inhabitants of the city of Cartagena, Colombia. It consists on the analysis of the reciprocal reproduction mechanisms of the territories and the identities, revealing forms of relation with the other one and carriers of the citizenship aspirations and belonging to the city. Three particular cases are discussed: the significance of the "mestizo cross-bred city" image, traditionally attributed to Cartagena; the multiple interpretations referring to eradication, in the beginning of the 1970's decade, of the neighborhood of Chambacú, situated on the entrance of the tourist and historic city; and the ways of the territorial appropriation by inhabitants that make the most of their ethnic identity in the context of the multiculturalism affirmations during the 1990s.
urban territories; urban identities; racial belonging; citizenship and city belonging; otherness (alterity); territorialization; interaction and situational processes of identity; Cartagena; Colombia