El 9 de abril en Cali: cambio social, poder y liminalidad en el Valle del Cauca

Abstract

Based on the principles of Norbert Elias´s processual sociology concerning the relationships between established and marginal social groups, and on the analytical points of reference put forward by Victor Turner about liminal states, this paper examines the implications of the events occurred on the 9th of April (1948) in Cali and in the Valle del Cauca. The author seeks to identify the forms of social configuration of power at the regional level as well as the impact of the above mentioned historical event on this process, characterized by a widening and a stronger positioning of marginal social groups in the social field as a consequence of the socio-political changes that took place in the 1930´s and particularly in the second half of the 1940´s by influence of the “gaitanism” and the so-called resistencia civil. With the murder of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán a significant change is observed in the balance of power between social sectors, which is in contradiction with the aforementioned trend. The elements constituting the symbolic field are deemed indispensable for understanding the process of change, as well as the social forms of structuring the power.