We reject the name Bajamar," Aurelia insisted."We call these areas territorios ganados al mar (territories reclaimed from the sea)."She was objecting to the title commonly used to refer to the seaside shantytowns, built and inhabited primarily by Afro-Colombian settlers, in which about one-third of Buenaventura's 300,000 people live.Aurelia voiced her argument not only as someone advocating on behalf of the Pacific coast port-city's black communities; she herself resided in one of the waterfront settlements named explicitly for their relationship to the sea.Literally meaning "low tide," the label Bajamar invoked a precarious position relative to the fluctuating waters that interpenetrate the city on all sides.It implied that the neighborhoods given this designation were both ecologically vulnerable and legally suspect: low-lying tidal areas in Buenaventura had been identified as having the highest levels of climate-related risk and permanent human habitation is prohibited by Colombian law within fifty meters of the high-tide line.Both implications led to the same conclusion-mandatory relocation-which activists and settlers alike passionately disputed.This chapter focuses on territorial conflicts in Buenaventura as a window into the racialized politics of life and death in contemporary Colombia. 1 Departing from the naming problem surrounding the seaside shantytowns commonly known as Bajamar, it examines efforts to counter displacement pressures afflicting the port-
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