Moving between historic reconstruction and ethnographic data, this article analyses the close relationship existing between memory, religion and ethnicity in the case of the Raizal people of the islands of San Andrés and Providencia (in Colombia's Western Caribbean). The dual colonial history of the islands and the peculiar modalities of the emergence of Creole society there, which is closely related to the establishment of the Baptist Church in a context of relative isolation, contributed decisively to defining the current political demands of the Raizal ethnic movements.