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Mobilization of ethnic identities has received increased attention in recent years. This paper examines the organizing efforts of indigenous groups in Ecuador and Peru in order to understand why ethnic identities are mobilized and politicized by some populations and not others. I argue that ethnic mobilization results from the formulation of a collective identity by entrepreneurs and activists through consciousness-raising and meaningful framing of symbols, which shapes or takes advantage of opportunities to advance the claims and grievances of the community to a broader audience, at least some of whom endorse the validity of the movement. Ethnic identities are then politicized by the ways in which movement members interact with other actors within the political system, and with the system itself. Of the many mechanisms that social movement scholars argue play a role in episodes of contentious politics, I focus on the mechanisms of identity formation, attribution of opportunity or threat, and certification by outside actors. Movement entrepreneurs, or brokers, do the work of identity formation by framing identities through consciousness-raising and activating symbols that resonate with potential movement members so that those individuals re-order attributes of their identity to privilege an ethnic identity as their public identity. Movement entrepreneurs also play a key role in attributing opportunity or threat to an event or issue, around which ethnic identities can be mobilized. Certification of the mobilization of ethnic identities by those outside the movement conveys a sense of validation of the ethnic identity and communicates endorsement of the identity to movement members and potential members. How ethnic identities are politicized depends on the sites that movement entrepreneurs have connected, literally (in the case of coalition-forming) and figuratively (in the case of politicization of discourse). I found that the aforementioned mechanisms of ethnic mobilization played important roles in all cases of ethnic mobilization, but the importance was weighted differently across cases, depending on from where the articulation of the identity came. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]