More LA TOMA, Colombia

Shovel and wooden pan in hand, rubber boots hoisted up to his shins, Leider Ocoró Ambuila strolled past the zapote tree, past the stands of ripening bananas, past the cow pen, down to the banks of the Ovejas river. He was soon crouched at waterway’s edge shoveling silt into a concave pan, or batea, a ritual passed down for generations. He splashed water on the grit and tilted the pan to help separate mud and pebbles from the real stuff — gold, minuscule flecks of which soon sparkled from the muck.

“Francia also worked hard to find gold,” said Ocoró Ambuila, 41. “I grew up with her. We played together. She is one of us.”

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In these remote parts, where destiny is shaped by water and gold, the reference was clear: Francia Elena Márquez, the most eminent, and provocative, citizen of La Toma, a string of villages and farmsteads spread over verdant hills and valleys that is home to some 8,000 people, overwhelmingly of African ancestry. Most are descendants of slaves brought to South America centuries ago by the Spanish to work in mines and on plantations.

Márquez is a single mother and former live-in maid who escaped rural poverty and threats to become an outspoken social activist — winner of the Goldman Prize, the so-called environmental Nobel, awarded for her battle against large-scale illegal gold mining. Today, Márquez, 40, sits improbably as Colombia’s vice president. She took office last month alongside President Gustavo Petro, 62, an ex-urban guerrilla and the first leftist chief executive of this nation of 50 million, long a key U.S. strategic ally.

The meteoric rise and ballot-box draw of Márquez — her charismatic appeal with minority, female and young voters helped boost Petro over the top in his third presidential bid — is a singular development, even at a moment when the left is again on the upswing in Latin America. Márquez, who had never before held elective office, is the first person of African heritage to attain such a high post in Colombia, a country where discussion of race has mostly been muted, if not taboo. That is often the case in Latin America, where racism has persisted, typically in a less institutional, albeit no less insidious, manner than in the United States.

Her high-profile advocacy has placed Márquez at the vanguard of an awakening of identity — and push for equality — among the country’s long-marginalized Afro-Colombian masses, who officially tally less than 10% of Colombia’s population. Advocates call that a vast undercount, reflecting centuries of neglect.

“People of African descent are at the bottom of the pyramid in terms of inequality,” said Helmer Quiñones, an activist who wears a Black Lives Matter pin on his lapel. “Francia Márquez is not the first great political leader in Colombia of African descent. But she also has a global profile, not just domestic.”

Márquez’s big jewelry and multi-patterned outfits have emerged as a style point for admirers from backgrounds rural and urban, poor and wealthy. Her face stares from flamboyant wall murals, many proclaiming her campaign slogan: “Vivir sabroso” — roughly, live life to the fullest.

Afro-Colombians were major participants in nationwide protests last year against what was then a conservative government. The massive street mobilizations, and police violence against protesters, set the stage for a “change” agenda in this year’s national voting. Still, many didn’t take Márquez’s chances seriously last year when she announced her bid for the presidency. But, in a March primary of the leftist Historic Pact coalition, she garnered almost 800,000 votes. Petro, a sitting senator and former mayor of Bogota, the capital, won the primary and named Márquez his running mate; in a June runoff, the pair narrowly beat a conservative businessman. Their platform vowed social and political reformation of a nation battered by decades of civil war, narco-violence and deepening inequality.

Márquez calls herself a champion of the “nobodies” — the county’s Black and Indigenous minorities, the poor, working-class women and others at the fringes of a nation historically dominated by a white-mestizo male elite based in the cool Andean climes of Bogota. Most of Colombia’s Afro-descendant peoples hail from the torrid zones along the Pacific and Caribbean coasts.

Beyond race, Márquez has unabashedly challenged sexism, classism, inequality and gender prejudice, among other incendiary topics. She has weathered threats against her life, racist taunts and denied allegations of links to armed guerrillas. Internationally, Márquez has developed a kind of rock-star following as a fearless crusader for environmental, racial and gender justice, climate change and other timely issues.

“I am part of the struggle against structural racism,” she declared in her 2018 Goldman Prize speech in San Francisco. “Among those women who raise their voices to stop the destruction of rivers, forests and wetlands. Among those who dream that, one day, all human beings are going to change the economic model of death to an economic model of life.”

Her critics label her a divisive figure who deploys multicultural rhetoric to mask a lack of government experience in her ambitious march to the Casa de Narino, the presidential palace. “It’s very convenient for her and her followers to construct a defensive wall that characterizes as racist or classist any type of criticism,” Luis Guillermo Vélez, an opposition politician, wrote during the presidential campaign. “Francia Márquez’s personal story may be admirable.... But that doesn’t exempt her from responding to questions about her political ideas.”

After less than two months in office, Márquez’s exact role in the new administration remains largely undefined, a fact that has unsettled some of her supporters. Márquez has pushed for the creation of a Ministry of