ROLE MODEL HI-LIGHT: ORIEL MARIA SIU Phd
Mother, Profesora in Latina/o Studies, Kizomba Dance Instructor
Photo Right and Below:
ORIEL in Full Moon Earrings
Oriel María Siu is from San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Having grown up in an economically devastated region (by the 1990s Honduras had already been entirely sold to U.S. and foreign corporate intere$t$), at the age of 16, Oriel –like millions of other Central Americans– had no other option than to migrate to el norte. The “American Dream,” she will often remind her students, came to her in the form of an imposition; it was the only path to follow if one wished not to endure the ever-escalating violence on the streets of her home-town, the lack
of educational and employment opportunities in a historically plundered region, and the extremities of poverty –in all senses of the word. She arrived in Los Angeles where years later she obtained a doctoral degree in Central American cultural productions from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Masters in Latin American literatures from the University of California, Berkeley. She currently acts as the director and founder of the Latino Studies Program at the University of Puget Sound, where she teaches courses centered on issues of immigration, the coloniality of power, race, and resistance. Her areas of research include contemporary Central American literatures, diasporas and migrations in the Americas, border thinking, and Latino cultural
productions. With her partner Dennis Richards, she teaches and dances Kizomba, an Angolan couple dance of beautiful connections and proportions. Find her on any Seattle Kizomba dance floor and join her for a drink at the Tin Table, her favorite bar in the Emerald City.
Photo Above Left: ORIEL in New Moon Earrings. Necklace handmade by Waorani tribe of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Above Center: ORIEL in Cheshire Moon Earrings.
Photo Above: ORIEL in Large Brown Cheshire Moon Earrings; Necklace from Shishin Artifacts.
Photo Above: ORIEL in Large Creme Cheshire Moon Earrings. Photo Below: Oriel in Large Black Crescent Moon Earrings.
Raw Kizomba Love:
Oriel with her partner, Dennis Richards, sharing the beautiful Angolan couple dance of Kizomba.
Video Produced by MamaWisdom1
Music by Nuxito Produções