"A truthteller"
"A literary wonder"
"A must for every classroom, library, and home"
"A Pioneering Children's Book"
Best Children's Fiction Picture Book
Top 10 New Latino Authors of 2020
Latino Stories
Picks for the social justice curriculum and classroom
Rebeldita is off to more libraries, classrooms and homes. Thank you for your pictures!
@rebelditabooks
Dr. Siu
in the news
"Every school library should carry Christopher the Ogre Cologre, It’s Over! to encourage students to learn about Indigenous people’s true power of strength and spirit." South Seattle Emerad
The Author
Oriel María Siu (1981) is a Náhuatl/Pipil/Chinese writer, scholar, and educator born in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Daughter to a strong & mighty Náhuatl/Pipil-Salvadoran-Guatemalan mother, and a dedicated Chinese Nicaraguan father, Dr. Siu had to leave her homeland for Los Angeles, California, in 1997.
Since her arrival in Los Angeles, Dr. Siu has contributed to the creation of cultural and academic spaces for the growing Central American, Indigenous, Black and Brown communities in the U.S., helping establish the first Central American Studies Program at California State University, Northridge in 1999, and founding the Latina/o Studies program at the University of Puget Sound in 2012. Throughout her journey as an educator, Dr. Siu has been a strong proponent of Ethnic Studies, contributing her research, writing and teaching to sustaining and expanding this transformative, needed, academic field.
Dr. Siu holds a Masters in Latin American Literatures from UC Berkeley, and a Doctoral Degree in Cultural Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has taught courses on race, immigration, Central American, Chicana/o and Latinx literatures, while publishing multiple articles, chapters, and academic works on these topics in numerous national and international journals and books. Among the universities where Dr. Siu has taught are UCLA, the University of Puget Sound, Chapman University, and Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles.
After becoming a mother in 2013, Dr. Siu encountered the problem all socially-conscious parents face: the lack of inspiring, empowering, historically on-point, and culturally sensitive books for children of color in the U.S. So she decided to write her own. She is now writing the children’s book series, Rebeldita the Fearless / Rebeldita la Alegre, published by Izote and Rebeldita Press. In this series, Dr. Siu centralizes the power of children vis-a-vis destructive ogre-forces living in society.
The LA Times called the first book of Dr. Siu's Rebeldita children's book series, "pioneering." Her second book, Christopher the Ogre Cologre, It's Over! -published in August of 2021- is receiving national praise from social justice educational spaces, independent media outlets, and Ethnic Studies educators and programs throughout. "A must for every classroom, library and home", her latest book is helping educators teach the historically omitted truths about settler colonialism and the foundations of the United States. Organizations like RethinkingSchools are encouraging the use of her work in the middle school classroom, high schools and universities alike are using Christopher the Ogre Cologre, It's Over! as part of Education, Race, and American Studies teacher training programs, and more school districts are adopting this book for opening needed conversation with children.
Dr. Siu lives and writes out of Los Angeles, California, and San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with her daughter Suletu Ixakbal.
In 2020, Dr. Siu was selected "Top Ten New Latino Latinx Authors" by Latino Stories for her contributions to children's literature in the United States.
La Autora
Oriel María Siu nació en San Pedro Sula, Honduras (1981). Es orgullosamente pipil/china/centroamericana de madre pipil salvadoreña/guatemalteca y de padre chino/nicaragüense. En 1997 se vio en la necesidad de salir de su país, y emigró a Los Ángeles, California, donde en 1999, ayudó a fundar el primer programa de estudios centroamericanos en Estados Unidos en la Universidad Estatal de California, Northridge.
En el 2005 concluyó una maestría en literaturas latinoamericanas de la Universidad de California, Berkeley, y en el 2012 obtuvo su doctorado en Letras de la Universidad de California, Los Ángeles. Ha impartido numerosos cursos de literatura, inmigración y estudios étnicos en diferentes universidades estadounidenses, incluyendo la Universidad de Puget Sound en el estado de Washington, donde fundó el programa de Latino Studies, y en Loyola Marymount University, en Los Ángeles, sin dejar de lado su amor por la creación literaria. Vive y escribe en Los Ángeles, California, y San Pedro Sula, Honduras, acompañada de su hija Suletu Ixakbal. Su meta es seguir en la creación de libros que inspiren a su hija y a todos los niños del mundo a crear y luchar por la vida, la justicia, y nuestra MamaTierra.
En el 2020, la Dra. Siu fue seleccionada una de las/los 10 mejores escritoras y escritores de descendencia Latinoamericana en EEUU por Latino Stories.
History textbooks and school curricula insist on negating and brushing off the realities of a continent for over 500 years occupied. This history is taught as a fairytale to children - one that is comprised of gigantic foundational lies. These lies permeate the core of what children grow up to believe about themselves, others, and the land they live on.
So, I write children's books to undo these foundational fairytales because the consequences of whitewashing history -and books- are atrocious. And because children are fully capable of engaging, contesting, and becoming empowered by the truth -when we allow for it.
Dr. Siu
By Ethnic Studies and Education scholar-educators:
Dr. Oriel María Siu
Dr. Bárbara I. Abadía Rexach
Dr. Kate E. Kedley
Verónica X. Valadez, MA
FREE
and full of resources,
activities and discussion questions to accompany educators reading Christopher the Ogre Cologre, It's Over! with children.
Adaptable for all age groups.
ACADEMICS
Education
PhD - University of California Los Angeles, 2012
MA - University of California Berkeley, 2007
BAs - CSU Northridge, Magna Cum Laude, 2004
Hispanic Languages and Literatures BA
Chicana/Chicano Studies BA
Central Amrican Studies
Publications
Siu, Oriel María. "Foundational Fairytales and the Lies They Tell: On Children, Books, and Truth" Last Real Indians, August 2022.
Dr. Siu. Cristóbal Cologro, ¡Tu Fin por Fin Llegó! Rebeldita Press 2022.
Dr. Siu. Rebeldita the Fearless in Ogreland BILINGUAL Edition. Rebeldita Press 2022.
Dr. Siu. Christopher the Ogre Cologre, It's Over! Rebeldita Press 2021.
Dr. Siu. Rebeldita the Fearless in Ogreland. Izote Press, 2021.
Dr. Siu. Rebeldita la Alegre en el País de los Ogros. Izote Press, 2020.
Siu, Oriel María. " White by Design: The United States' Long Enduring History of Family Separation" Last Real Indians, November 2020.
Siu, Oriel María. “The Presence of Coloniality in U.S. Central American-American Literatures.” Oxford Encyclopedia. Special Edition on U.S. Latina/o Literatures. Spring 2018.
Siu, Oriel María (collaborator) “We Should Help Stabilize Central America and End the War on Drugs” Rodolofo F. Acuña, ed. Latino Issues (2016). Greenwood Press, 2016.
Siu, Oriel María (Chapter). Edited by Denise M. Sandoval, Anthony J. Ratcliff, Tracy Lachica Buenavista, James R. Marín. “On Building Latino Studies at the White Neoliberal Liberal Arts University: An Auto-Ethnography”. White Washing American Education: The New Culture Wars in Ethnic Studies. ABC-CLIO; Denver, October 2016.
Siu, Oriel María. “Prólogo” de Inmortales, novela de Oscar René Benítez. Segunda Edición, 2016.
Siu, Oriel María. “On the Colonial Legacy of U.S. Universities and the Transcendence of Your Resistance”. Mujeres Talk. Ohio State University Libraries. October 2015.
Siu, Oriel María. “Desobediencia de la razón: El cuerpo y sus placeres en una exquisita novela de Arturo Arias, Sopa de Caracol”. Revista de Filología y Lingüística. Universidad de Costa Rica (Otoño 2015)
Siu, Oriel María. “On Sparking the Latino Political Imagination: A Conversation with Presente.org Co-Founder and Writer, Roberto Lovato”. Gabriel Gutiérrez, ed. Latinos and Latinas: Risks and Opportunities. Greenwood 2014.
Siu, Oriel María. “Central American Enunciations from US Zones of Indifference, or the Sentences of Coloniality”. Studies in 20th and 21st Century Literature: Special Issue. Arturo Arias (Ed). Publication date: 2013.
Siu, Oriel María. “Suicidio y colonialidad en una novela de la diáspora centroamericana: Inmortales”. Mester Journal. Issue No. 40, 2011.
Siu, Oriel María. “Interview with Héctor Tobar: On The Tattooed Soldier, the Times, Memory and Marginalities” Mester Journal. Issue No. 40, 2011.
Saavedra, José Luis y Arturo Escobar (Compiladores). Santiago Castro-Gómez, Ramón Grosfoguel, Agustín Lao-Montes, José A. Lucero, Nelson M. Torres, Carlos Mamani Condori, Walter Mignolo, Fanon Reinaga, Oriel María Siu, Catherine Walsh. “Es tiempo de descolonizar nuestra academia”. Educación superior, interculturalidad y descolonización. La Paz, Bolivia: CEUB-PIEB, 2007.
Meyer, Bethany; Siu, Oriel María; Venegas, Gabriela. “La visión femenina ante el amor, la naturaleza y la historia: Una charla con Gioconda Belli”. Mester. Vol. XXXVII. Los Ángeles, 2008.
Siu, Oriel María. “Reflexiones de una centroamericana sobre el encuentro intergaláctico entre los pueblos zapatistas y el mundo”. La voz. Berkeley, February 2007.
Orona-Cordova, Roberta ed. “Are You Mexican?” by Oriel María Siu, contributor. Chicano/a Studies Reader: A Bridge to Writing. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co, 2003.
Public Talks
"Undoing Foundational Fairytales One Children's Book at a Time" Eastern Washington University, May 2022
"Un
"Rewriting Foundational Fairytales" Las Vegas Book Festival Keynote Speaker, October 2021
"Creative Writing, Children's Literature & The Public Intellectual of Color" UC Berkeley, October 2020.
“Family Separation and the Racialized U.S. Deportation Regime - from Past to Present“ University of Puget Sound, Fall 2018.
“Separating Families of Color: The Racialized U.S. Deportation Regime from Past to Present” Keynote Speaker, Glendale Community College. Fall 2018.
“Literatures from the Central American Diaspora” Cal Poly Pomona. January 2018.
“La íntima muerte en la primera novela centroamericana de la diáspora: Inmortales (1983)” Latin American Studies Association (LASA). New York. May 2016.
Guest Lecture, Chicano Studies Department CSUN: “War Without End and the Disobeying Signs of the Central American Diaspora: On Survival and Resistance” California State University Northridge, Chicano Studies Department. April 2016.
Keynote Address, “Decolonizing the University: Transcending it through Beautiful Struggle.” For “Latinos in Education” Lecture Series, Bellevue College, Seattle. October 2015.
“Disposable Bodies: On the Racialized U.S. Deportation and Incarceration Regimes.” Yellow House Lecture Series. University of Puget Sound, October 2015.
“The Tattooed Soldier and Central American Cultural Productions in Diaspora.” Invited guest speaker. University of Puget Sound LAS, October 2015.
“El gato de sí mismo y la desobediente palabra: Sobre otras formas ser y migrar en la narrativa centroamericana de la diaspora”. Latin American Studies Association (LASA). San Juan, Puerto Rico. 2015.
Keynote Address, Students of Color Graduation Ceremony. "On the Colonial Legacy of Universities, the Transcendence of Struggles and Building Communities of Resistance.” University of Puget Sound, May 2015.
CLST 1998 – Race in Contemporary Society (Loyola Marymount University)
CLST 1116 – Introduction to Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies (Loyola Marymount University)
LTS 400 – On Whiteness and the Pervasive Cultures of Racism: Towards a De-Linking (A Special Topics Latino Studies Seminar, University of Puget Sound)
LTS 400 – The Coloniality of Power and the Latino Experience in These Times of War: Immigration, Detentions, Race, and Resistance (A Special Topics Latino Studies Seminar University of Puget Sound)
LTS 300 – U.S. Latina/o Literatures: Transgressive, Disobedient Enunciations from Latina/o America (University of Puget Sound)
LTS 200 – A Critical Introduction to Latina/o America (University of Puget Sound)
LTS 401 – Independent Research in the Latino Community: A Capstone Course for the Latino Studies Minor (University of Puget Sound)
SPAN495 – Undoing Central American Invisibility in the U.S: An Oral History Project (University of Puget Sound)
SPAN 495 – Remapping Central America through Literature: A Close Study of Three Seminal Novels from the Diaspora (University of Puget Sound)
SPAN 310 – Central American Literatures: On Margins, Banana Books, War, Diaspora, and Disenchantment
SPAN 300 – Literatura, teoría y práctica: Hacia una aproximación crítica al estudio de las literaturas latinoamericanas
SPAN 212 – Cultures of Resistance in Latina/o America
SPANISH – All levels of Spanish language, from introductory courses, to Spanish for heritage speakers and advanced research (Champman University and UCLA)
University Courses Taught
CONTACT
For inquiries, book talks, classroom presentations, please contact:
orielmariasiu@gmail.com | or follow:
Sign Up for News, Events & Much More!