In recent decades, the integration of communities into the processes and attention to local identities have become a basic condition in the design of public buildings. However, when those designs are developed from a centralized state structure, communication with the local environment becomes difficult. That led the Chilean state - through the Directorate of Architecture of the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) - to develop a series of Guides for Ethnic Architectural Design of Public Infrastructure. In this debate, we are interested in delving into the capacity of these guides to decolonize architectural design. Are they a useful tool for this purpose? What is their role in the design process? Do they allow a horizontal dialogue to be established with the communities? Or are they a tool to fix an identity from above?