Abstract This article studies the configuration of representations of identity in San Basilio de Palenque (henceforth Palenque) by examining how the community has interacted with academia, international institutions (UNESCO), and the media. Such representations are typically organized around three main topics: “Palenque as the first free people in Latin America,” “Africa in America,” and “Palenque as a Masterpiece of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity” (UNESCO). The first part of the essay examines how the concept of intangible heritage serves as an observational “ground zero,” a locus from which “the world” is “recognized,” collected, and safeguarded. The study then proceeds to analyze recent processes of self-representation employed by the Palenquero community, and how these have been used to interact with official entities. I claim that such “performances” of self-representation subvert the interactions between the observer and the observed. Finally, the essay will demonstrate how the monument of Benkos Bioho, Palenque’s supposed founder, symbolically synthesizes relations of power and meaning in present-day Palenque.