Affection and Couple Election among Teenagers from Popular Sectors of Cali

Abstract

This article explores the affection and the couple election production logics among teenagers from heterogeneous popular sectors of Cali city (Colombia), according to class, gender and race factors. Without seeking to look directly into the conjugality, anyway the text enters in the matter of couple’s election, under the restrictions of adolescent and post adolescent life cycle of our research program through the courtship, eventually with the option to cohabit and to have an offspring; in accordance with the information picked up to level of the interviews and the focal groups. In second place, when having the opportunity of a statistical data through household survey series between 1998 and the 2003 in Cali and the Valle del Cauca urban region, where Cali is placed, on Afrocolombian and non Afrocolombian population, we have been able to attempt a first approach to the racial homogamy phenomenon for the complete households (it means, with spouse’s presence), establishing the necessary links with the qualitative data to look from a macro social perspective the behavior of these logics among the teenagers. For that reason, the class, gender and race factors are seen through the racial homogamy category, in the sense of coming closer to the social constraints of the sexuality as a social practice, the affection and the intent of conjugal couple conformation in the Cali society.