How do you unteach falsehoods that have been perpetuated for generations? Oriel María Siu, Ph.D., is an author, educator and “border smasher” who has dedicated her career to decolonizing the curriculum taught in classrooms across the United States.

On Wednesday, April 9, at 6 p.m. in the Wells Fargo Theatre in the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center, Siu will give a community talk entitled “Shattering Foundational Fairytales One Children’s Book at a Time.” The community talk will be followed by a Q & A session and a book signing. The Radical Cat bookstore will have copies of Siu’s books available for purchase at the event. Community partners and University resources will also be tabling during the event, which has been organized by Assistant Professor Guadalupe Escobar in the University’s Department of English & Gender, Race and Identity in the College of Liberal Arts. The event is free to attend and open to the community.

Siu holds a master’s degree in Latin American literatures from UC Berkeley and a doctoral degree in cultural studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her passion for unsettling colonial frameworks within curriculum is apparent as she speaks about it.

"In those spaces where silence is meant to settle, young ones watch, question and engage." - Dr. Siu

“For over five centuries, colonizers controlled the Americas not only through violence but through the stories they wrote – fairytales designed to justify their borders, their rule, their theft,” Siu said. “They filled schools, universities and curricula with these myths, silencing voices, distorting history and shaping the very foundations through which we learned, taught,  – and, in most spaces, still teach – to see ourselves and the world.

“But when we make way for it, when we allow it, children can see straight through the cracks. In those spaces where silence is meant to settle, young ones watch, question and engage. And so I write for them – I write to give them a roadmap back to their stolen stories. To unearth the histories buried beneath empire’s pages. I write so they find themselves in a book – not in the margins, the footnotes or the omissions, but at the center, as protagonists, participants and creators of their story and path.

“Stories do not just disappear, you see – they wait. Beneath the silence, beneath the erasures, they persist, pressing against the cracks, ready to claim their words. So, no matter how many colonial fictions they impose, how many books they ban or how fiercely they silence, annihilate, erase, distort – even deport – now, as ever, we must reclaim the stories in us. Resist. Persist. Because at the end, stories are not just words we tell – they are, if you listen closely, all we are.”

Professor Escobar, the event sponsors and organizers are excited to bring Siu to campus and have this important presentation and discussion with the community.

“Dr. Siu is a renowned scholar, writer, and educator whose work critically addresses the intersection of race, coloniality and education, particularly focusing on Latinx communities in the United States,” Escobar said. “Dr. Siu serves as a leading voice in the field of ethnic studies and children’s literature. Her acclaimed works, including ‘Christopher the Ogre Cologre, It’s Over!’ and ‘Rebeldita the Fearless in Ogreland’ offer vital contributions to discourses on settler colonialism, sanctuary, and the narrative power of historically marginalized communities. Greater understanding of these complex issues will help University faculty, staff and the community better support students of color in their academic and social success.”

This event is free and open to the community, and is made possible by the Department of English, the Department of Gender, Race, and Identity, the Hilliard Endowment, Core Humanities, the Latino Research Center, UndocuPack, and Alianza.

For more information on Oriel María Siu, her books and her work, visit Siu’s website.