This article presents the life and work of Nina S. de Friedemann. It highlights the relevance of her studies on Black and Indigenous cultures in Colombia, and demonstrates her understanding of terms such as identity, ethnicity, and traces of African presence. Taking as a point of departure the Nina S. de Friedemann Collection, unpublished texts from the journal América Negra, and discussions with family members and colleagues, this proposal entails creating a dialogue between her research processes and several transformations over that last two decades that affected the communities for which she worked. Finally, the memoirs of the event “Conversations: 20 years without Nina” are presented in order to highlight the intellectual focus and historical commitment of women and men in order to consolidate a horizon of study of the Afro-Latin American cultural tradition.