Campesino A Contested Identity, a Vibrant Subjectivity in Colombia

"Campesino" is a contested and unsettling category in Colombia. While the term condenses a history full of movements and internal migrations of land colonization, official representations of campesinos do not recognize their political subjectivities, which contributes to different forms of violence and inequalities and the exacerbation of localized conflicts. Building upon ethnographic works conducted in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region in the Caribbean coast and the department of Guaviare in the eastern lowlands, this chapter discusses some of the contemporary political dilemmas of campesinos in Colombia. It analyzes the institutional, sociopolitical, and economic entanglements through which the state portrays campesinos as allies in the transformation of uncivilized spaces (e.g., forests and mountains) in some cases, and as predators of strategic resources and environments in others. In the context of a post-peace agreement between the government and the guerrillas, the chapter reflects on the ways in which campesinos are stigmatized and criminalized and provides a counter narrative of the everyday tensions and networks of environmental care through which they endure and protect their livelihoods and lives.