Starting from the novel Yngermina (1844), the article reflects on the racial configuration of Bolívar Grande, showing that, even at the end of the nineteenth century, indigenous people still had a significant presence among the population and society of this part of Colombia's Caribbean region. It critiques those who have censured the novel's author for rooting his fictionalization of this region's formation in native peoples. It also analyzes why they were made invisible during that century, and why contemporary academic work reproduces this view. By introducing an hitherto-ignored ethnic variable, it adds a central element to current discussions on this region, nation, and identitarian relationships.