“We Are One”: Mercedes, a Young Kichwa Woman, Speaks on Nature, Community & Indigenous Knowledge
Mercedes is 16 years old and lives in Tunshi Grande, a Kichwa community more than 3,000 meters above sea level in Chimborazo, Ecuador.
From there, she can see Taita Chimborazo, the closest point to the sun from the center of the Earth. But what interests her is not the summit but what happens below: the water that rises in the moors, the soils that feed the chakras, and the plants that heal her people.
She recently told us about her two-year journey with the Youth Storytellers program, a space where young people from smallholder farmer communities learn to express themselves through film, share their cultural heritage and traditional farming knowledge, and connect deeply with nature.
“I like social activism,” Mercedes says simply. But her work is anything but simple. Through hands-on workshops and community radio with our local partner EkoRural, as well as interviews with her elders, she has been exploring how water flows from its natural sources to their tables, how to grow healthy food without chemicals, and how medicinal and native plants are key to both human and environmental health. She then turned these learnings into visual stories to share vital messages, urging people to join her in safeguarding our planet’s future.
With honesty and a touch of humor, Mercedes recalls how unsure she felt at the beginning—handling a camera for the first time, speaking on video, learning to improvise during interviews. But little by little, her confidence grew. “Now I can speak,” she says with a smile, “bit by bit.”
For Indigenous youth like Mercedes, storytelling is a vital tool. It bridges generations, keeps traditional knowledge alive, challenges harmful myths, and carries the hope that a community’s identity will endure and thrive.
Mercedes ends with a phrase in Kichwa that sums up everything she’s learned:
“One thought, one strength, one heart and one feeling—we are one.”
Watch the full video to hear Mercedes share how she has grown as a Youth Storyteller and witness the strength of a new generation reclaiming their roots and reimagining their future.
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