This paper discusses some strategies of territorial appropriation in the context of inter-ethnic relations in an Andean locality in Colombia. Through ethnographic and legal examples I analize power relations that shape territorial practices, in a context in which multicultural policy interventions of the Colombian state have influenced the production of ethnicity discourses that are appropriated at different levels by local groups. This analysis seeks to reveal the complexities involved in the staging of Afro and indigenous concepts in a locality such as Guamal, while trying to avoid essentialist or pragmatic views on ethnicity by emphasizing political and territorial dynamics that shape ethnic frontiers/boundaries. https://doi.org/10.22380/2539472X5