This essay’s objective is to review some key concepts for initiating a discussion between theoretical approaches of decoloniality and universalism. To do this, the author takes up some empirical cases to exemplify and sustain his thesis based on the idea that indigenous and Afrodescendant movements are as important as democratizing movements are inside and outside their fields of action.

This text addresses the discussion on decoloniality in social studies on Latin America from different research experiences that seek to problematize the concept and show that not all research carried out in the so-called Global South is decolonial. It also presents scenarios in which academic works have justified the reproduction of inequalities in Latin America, as well as the discrimination that affects the region and prevents access to models of social justice.

This article presents an ethnographic discussion of the processes of racialization, mestizaje and the construction of identity/alterity in Punta Maldonado (El Faro), Costa Chica, Guerrero. First, it examines the concepts of race and racialization in order to understand how physical attributes have been used in the marking and hierarchization of differences; it then explores the meanings of some locally used categories that show how physical appearance, particularly hair, is socially perceived and interpreted in El Faro. Finally, it analyzes how the idea of mixture is thought of and incorporated in the narratives of El Faro. and incorporated into the collective identity narratives of this place.