Decir Haciendo invites us to redefine the meaning of identity through a journey into the heart of a nation shaped by a "half-told" history. We follow muralist Raúl Ayala back to Ecuador as he embarks on his latest work: a visual exploration of the Puruhá cosmovision in the country’s central highlands.

 

The film weaves the creative process into the broader socio-political fabric of Ecuador, centering on the historic and contemporary indigenous struggles led predominantly by women. These movements challenge us to question the structural reasons behind their recurring resistance and confront the role of the mestizo—those of mixed heritage—in a society that often denies half of its ancestry.

 

While Ayala’s brushes reclaim living memory on the walls, the environment provides a haunting parallel: Mount Chimborazo, the primary Puruhá deity and perennial witness to these cyclical shifts, is losing its glaciers. Just as the ice vanishes, the Kichwa language—the vessel of this ancient memory—struggles to survive the onslaught of modernity. Decir Haciendo is a visceral reflection on what remains when the pillars of our identity begin to disappear.