He had never truly asked himself where he came from. He spent his childhood and adolescence trying to blend in, as often happens when we are still unaware that what makes us special is precisely what sets us apart from others. And so, upon reaching adulthood, standing alongside his family—his father and his siblings—he finally said to himself: We are Muisca. It was as if the earth had split open in two, or in a thousand, and in that great tremor the stories of his Indigenous legacy found their way back into him.

He saw in his father, also named Milciades—so close to Gabo’s alchemist Melquíades—a man who had always spoken to him of their past, but whom he was only now truly listening to. He remembered how his father taught him his first stitches and how, unlike him, they turned out perfect. That memory returned years later when he found himself staring at the elderly women weaving, mesmerized by their skillful hands and their focus. Only now does he understand how, despite barely knowing how to handle the needles, he was able to weave his first mochila in a single night: the knowledge was already in his blood.

These past years have been intense ones—years in which he decided to throw himself wholeheartedly into the world of craft. Although he first studied Industrial Design—at a time when manual work was still just an intuition—it did not take long for him to realize that textiles and fashion were his true path. Two lights showed him the way forward. On one hand, the need to complete a course with a personal project. On the other, his uncontrollable desire to look impeccably elegant on graduation day. And so, what he carried in his heart began to unfold joyfully. With the help of many—beginning with his family and extending to professors and friends—he began shaping on paper his goal of giving visibility to a craft that begins with a sheep, becomes wool through the patient, dedicated work of the spinners, and passes through the loom to become fabric. The mantle he wore when receiving his diploma would become his signature. One that took flight in 2018 under the name Somos Muiscas.

They have been years of learning, during which he became a master weaver, honoring his origin. Yet his mission now pushes him beyond his own craftmanship. Between the mastery of the women who have been weaving for centuries without being recognized as artisans, academia, fashion design, and the runway, he is finding a place and a voice that grows more powerful each day, capable of pointing out both the virtues and the flaws of each of these worlds. He speaks with enough authority to make designers understand that their collaborations with artisans—more frequent each day—are not favors, and that they are no saviors. He seeks a balance in the language, insisting that each brings a knowledge of their own, and asking, what would fashion be without the precious raw material produced by the elder weavers? In fact, although many say weaving is in crisis, on the verge of extinction, he points out that while many things do disappear—technology, for example—the craft of weaving persists against all odds. Because it is essential.

Because it keeps us warm. In doing so, he hopes that the value of foundational labor is valued as it should be: with dignity. And through this, he feels he is giving back to his ancestors what they gave him—the knowledge in his hands.

With the patience of a weaver, and the clarity and confidence of someone who knows he is on the right path, he uprooted himself from Cota and moved to Tabio to establish his workshop and his life. He continues to work with his relatives and now also with his partner, a Cuban artist with whom he is exploring the merging of their creative languages. He is happy to know himself as a continuer, happy to recognize himself as vanguard, and happy, too, to feel himself an example.