02335nas a2200337   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002653001400043653001700057653001300074653000900087653001100096653002100107653001400128653001300142653002200155653001600177653001600193653002700209653001700236653000900253653001500262653002500277100002100302245009600323856015400419300001200573490000700585520138500592022002001977                                       d10aAtlantico10aBarranquilla10aColombia10aRace10aUNESCO10ablack population10ablackness10aCarnival10acultural heritage10aethnography10aPerformance10aperformance assessment10aPublic space10arace10astereotype10astereotypic behavior1 aMonica Gontovnik00aPerforming race in the Barranquilla Carnival: the case of the Negritas Puloy de Montecristo  uhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85047139951&doi=10.1080%2f13504630.2018.1473155&partnerID=40&md5=d534629e4690d88404967dc97e8dc2e0  a662-6780 v253 aIn the city of Barranquilla, Colombia, carnival is a main source of identity. Since the 2003 UNESCO proclamation of this carnival as an Intangible Cultural Heritage, the celebration has gained national and international attention, while the city has developed a whole cultural market around it. This essay traces the evolution of a popular costume and street performance that carries racial stereotypes and as such, has become almost emblematic of carnival time itself. La Negrita Puloy de Montecristo is now the only female symbol of the Barranquilla Carnival. It is argued in this essay that as long as blackness is performed during the regulated time of carnival, lived by the city as an illusion of racial integration and black pride, the consciousness of inequality stays dormant and inequality continues being a quotidian practice in a supposedly tri-racial nation that was funded on the principles of mixture. This essay is the product of a research project that lasted a year and combined ethnographic and archival work. Las Negritas Puloy de Montecristo perform exclusion annually, as they intend to paradoxically perform inclusion. This very popular carnival manifestation seems to be a sign that only as stereotype can the sexualized black woman participate in the public sphere. As the mulata, she is a sexual object. As a slave, she is forgotten. Thus, she can dance.  a13504630 (ISSN)