Celinda, an indigenous Kichwa woman, struggles to keep her culture and family alive between the Quito market where she works cleaning toilets and the rural community where she left her daughters. An intimate and powerful story about the human cost of migration, the silent resistance of women and the heartbreak of living between two worlds.

Celinda

In the heights of Quito, among the smoke of the stalls of the San Roque market, Celinda Toaquiza shells beans with hands that still keep the earth of Cotopaxi.

A 45-year-old Kichwa woman, her face carved by the cold of the early mornings and the nostalgia of her community, she has been dancing for 22 years between two worlds: that of the skyscrapers that ignore her and that of her distant countryside, where her two youngest daughters await her return. Her life is a brutal balancing act-she cleans toilets for spare change, endures the violence of an alcoholic husband, and grits her teeth to send money to the mountains. But every night, when she squeezes her 5-year-old daughter between the planks of her waterless room, her dreams smell of corn and wet earth.

This is an intimate and visceral portrait of the silent resistance of the invisible: how an indigenous family survives in the city without letting go of its roots, how the children learn to shuck beans before they learn to read, and how Celinda-like so many market women-holds up the sky with her calloused hands.

A story about what it takes to migrate. And what it takes not to give up.

A man sitting on a bed with a small girl sitting on the edge of the same bed, and a woman sleeping in the background. The room has minimal furniture and cluttered surroundings.

A woman and a young girl standing in a cluttered, dimly lit room with shelves filled with clothes, textiles, and household items, and a dirty concrete floor.

Short

People at a marketplace selling green beans and broad beans, with a woman holding a child among sacks of produce.

A young woman is purchasing something from a street vendor, who is an elderly woman wearing traditional attire, with a baby stroller and a surprised-looking child nearby. The vendor is sitting behind a small stall with candies and snacks on display.

Ficha Técnica / Technical Details

Título en español: Celinda
Título en inglés: Celinda

Produccion general / General Production: Luis Herrera R.

Dirección / Directed: Luis Herrera R.
Dirección de Fotografía / Cinematography: Luis Herrera R.
Guión / Screenplay: Luis Herrera R.

Genero / Genre: Ensayo Documental / Documentary essay
Formato / Format: HD 16:9
Duración / Runtime: 8 minutos / 8 minutes

An intimate portrait of indigenous migration through the eyes of Celinda, a Kichwa woman working in Quito's San Roque market, whose quiet strength reveals the invisible struggles and resilience of those caught between rural roots and urban survival.

Why

this

essay

This essay stems from my deep interest in understanding the lives of indigenous populations migrating from the countryside to the city. Celinda, the first woman I managed to interview in the San Roque market, became my gateway to a world invisible to many: that of migrant women who sustain their families between nostalgia for their land and the harsh urban reality.

Through her, I understood the stories of so many others. Celinda taught me about the affection that resists, the care that does not give up and the mother's love that sustains everything. Together we experienced profound moments - me accompanying her in her routine, her sharing her world with a generosity that expected nothing in return.

There are no great theoretical discourses here, but the tender and powerful gaze of a strong indigenous woman: companion, mother, sister, worker. This text is my way of expressing my gratitude for all that I learned at her side - the lessons that can only be learned when one listens with an open heart.

Celinda, like so many other market women, needs no grandiloquent words: her daily life is already a poem of resistance. And this essay is my humble attempt to honor that beauty.

A woman lying on her side on a bed, looking at the camera with a calm expression, surrounded by colorful blankets and household items.

A group of people, including children and women, sitting in a small, dimly lit room with worn walls, some holding bread or corn, engaged in conversation or eating.

Two young girls lying on a bed covered with a patterned blanket, surrounded by piles of clothes in a cluttered room. One girl is wearing a floral top and pajamas, the other a red t-shirt and brown skirt. Two more children are seen in the background among the clutter.