Mayra Elizabeth knows exactly where she comes from and proudly recites the lineage of four generations of Kamentsá leaders and governors. Her place in the community is esteemed and valued. Her great-grandfather was Miguel Chindoy Miticanoy, her grandfather Salvador Chindoy, and her uncle Cástulo Chindoy. The first, Mr. Miguel, was responsible, among other things, for bringing the Agrarian Bank to Sibundoy, which improved people’s quality of life, and her uncle Cástulo was reluctantly reelected as the authority of the council on several occasions due to being considered a man of great trust.

The value of respect, one that they have always protected, runs through the family’s veins, as does honesty and dedication to working for the community. Mayra’s father, Santiago, a Chindoy by name, chose a different but equally admirable path: he pursued teaching and married Isabel Jojoa, a woman from another community, the Pastos, who nonetheless dedicated herself to working for the children in the town of Sibundoy.

Our protagonist’s life, despite having a rich history involving the authorities of her indigenous community, has been different from that of a traditional heir. On one hand, her mestizo ancestry exposed her to other worldviews and ways of seeing life. On the other hand, her father lived for years away from his village, teaching in the Lower Putumayo region, between Puerto Guzmán and Orito. This caused her Kamentsá mother tongue to fade over the years, to the point where only a few words remained, something her grandmother always lamented. Additionally, Mayra became a single mother. Nevertheless, even though her circumstances were different, the spirit of her family always prevailed, as everything was respected and embraced. The whole family welcomed Juan Diego, and thanks to him, craftsmanship came into their lives.

Because of her baby, Juan Diego, Mayra learned to make bead jewelry. She needed to contribute to her household, to support them both, so when an aunt invited her to a course led by Jenny Cajoy, an Inga woman from the village of Santiago, she didn’t hesitate. Although she had studied Systems engineering, she couldn’t find work in her field and didn’t have time to waste. There, threading beads, she rediscovered her Kamentsá history, which is so essential to her and makes her hold her head high. That history speaks of the idea of family through the weaving of frogs and paints the sun as a symbol. She quickly realized that this knowledge was in her hands and became more and more skillful every day.

She recounts her years of work counting the age of her son Juan Diego, now a teenager. For her, seeing him grow means realizing a past that has become present and that excites her with every bead that turns into a design. Today, she is focused on trying beads on blouses, telling a story that, born from planting, would represent a new cycle, a birth, that new year symbolized by the sun. And during that year, she would draw good paths, represented by a mountain, one where reaching the summit symbolizes finding our dreams, and where the hummingbird would appear, bringing good news. That’s Mayra’s dream, and she will surely achieve it.