CSUF Digital

When Dr. Siu became a mother in 2013, she encountered an unexpected problem: 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.Oriel María Siu, Ph.D., is a writer, scholar and educator of Náhuat/Pipil/Chinese descent born and raised in San Pedro Sula, Honduras (1981).  In 1997, at the age of 16, Dr. Siu was forced to leave her homeland for Los Angeles, California, where she became active in the creation of educational spaces for the growing Central American, Indigenous, Black and Brown communities of Los Angeles helping to establish the first Central American Studies Program in the US at California State University Northridge in 1999, and later founding Latinx Studies at the University of Puget Sound in 2012.  Dr. Siu holds a Masters in Cultural Studies from UC Berkeley, a Doctoral Degree from UCLA.In 2020, Dr. Siu was selected “Top Ten New Latino Latina/Latino Authors” by Latino Stories for her contributions to children’s literature in the United States.

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.Dr. Siu lives and writes out of Los Angeles, California, and San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with her daughter, Suletu Ixakbal.