In the urban regions of Guayaquil and Cartagena, strongly marked by the presence of slavery, the "castas", slaves and freedmen (whether coloured or not), compose the essential of the "plebs" who keep worrying the "decent people". After the Independence, the term "people" imposes itself, with a certain ambiguity. If, on one side, it is exalted as the "sovereign people" in the elites' speeches, on the other side, its manifestations of resistance and revolt turn these same people into the heirs of ancient "plebs".