Just like any other Monday or Wednesday afternoon, Sandy Siquier walked into a bland classroom in Bowne Hall at Syracuse University to teach a Hispanic literature class in Spanish, her face gleaming with a smile as students filtered into the room.
“Nicole!”
“Chris!”
“Jordan!”
She excitedly greeted them by name, and then she reviewed whatever story, poem or play was assigned for homework that week. Suddenly, she was no longer talking about just literature; she had brought the literature to life. The conversation had shifted from a story about an oppressed woman to the #MeToo movement.
“And boys, what are you doing to protect the girls in this classroom? Your girl friends? Your sisters?” she questioned.
The boys in the classroom sat frozen in their seats; their eyes shifted nervously. Siquier continued by encouraging the men in the room to protect, defend and stand by their female peers.
Siquier’s lectures, whether in literature, script writing or directing actors, do not always shift to focus on current events and life lessons, but when they do, it’s no surprise. Her creative teaching techniques benefit her students in the long run, said Catherine Nock, a colleague of Siquier’s.
One student, Nicole Aramboles, said she values her experience in Siquier’s literature class because it goes beyond the literature, integrating what’s happening in the world with the text.
“She wants to show her students, like, ‘Yes, I care about this.’ Even by just relating it to a simple story that we read in class. And that means a lot to me,” Aramboles said. “It’s something that I’m not getting in any of my other classes.”
Siquier wants her students to leave her class knowing they must take a stand for their rights and for their beliefs, she said. When the opportunity presents itself, she relates stories to current events and empowers her students to fight for change, if they believe it’s necessary.
“They are the agents of change,” she said. “If they don’t like what is happening, do something. Don’t complain, do something.”
The notion of taking action is not unfamiliar to her; it is one that has been true to her throughout her life.
Siquier was born and raised in Venezuela to a Portuguese mother and a Spanish father. After completing her master’s degree at Syracuse University, she returned to Venezuela with her now husband, Alex Méndez Giner. While there, the two pursued successful careers in mass communications during the 2000s.
Siquier acted in three soap operas, starred in a few commercials, appeared in various plays and hosted two radio shows. Some of the commercials she acted in were produced by her husband, who ran a successful production company in Caracas. In Venezuela, everywhere you looked, Siquier was there, she said.
“If you turn on the T.V, I’m on the T.V. If you go to the theater, I’m in the theater. If you turn on the radio, I was on the radio,” she said.
Eventually, however, the political scene began to change. New taxes for businesses resulted in companies leaving the country, and a push for state-sponsored television affected the work the couple did.
“We went from 30 plus commercials a year to maybe three to four,” Méndez Giner said, adding that the same consequences were seen in Siquier’s work. “Less commercials, less jobs for her. Less soap operas, less jobs. Less theater plays, less jobs.”
The couple did not go down without a fight, though. They marched in protests, walked the streets and even made commercials in resistance to the government. One year, Siquier spent her New Year’s Eve protesting on a highway.
“We closed the highway and we had our celebration in the highway,” she recalled, but she eventually decided fighting wasn’t worth the effort. “This is a beast that is impossible to fight.”
The couple then decided to move to the U.S. after Méndez Giner accepted a teaching position at Syracuse University.
It has now been six years since Siquier moved to the U.S, but her activism did not end with her departure. She has sent resources to people in Venezuela, and she has given two lectures on her experiences and the current situation there to educate others around her.
A colleague of Siquier’s at Syracuse University, Katie Clinton, attended one of the lectures, and she left feeling enlightened and hopeful for the future, she said.
“By her telling her story, I can understand better how difficult life is for immigrant people of any background, and so my hope is to try to help others,” Clinton said.
Clinton and Siquier have daughters in the same grade at the same school, so Clinton said they often see each other at different events. Siquier has two daughters: Rebecca, 11, was born in Venezuela, and Veronica, 5, was born in the U.S. She teaches them to be proud of their heritage, but the message doesn’t always protect them from the difficulties of being an immigrant or the child of immigrants, she said.
One afternoon, when her daughter, Rebecca, was in third grade, Siquier volunteered as a lunch helper. She soon found herself comforting Rebecca, who was in tears in front of a Venezuelan dish she had brought for lunch. After peers continuously asked her what she was eating, she had grown frustrated.
“I love to be different, but it’s really hard to be different, mom,” Rebecca said.
Siquier tries to teach her girls that being an immigrant is not a negative thing; it’s up to them to change the atmosphere around the topic.
“She can change the bias and the perspective that people have,” Siquier said about Rebecca.
Whatever the subject, whether it be academic or life, Siquier’s passion and fervor is evident, and she inspires those around her to fight for a brighter future.
“Sandy is one of the most dedicated teachers I’ve ever met,” said her husband, Méndez Giner. “I think whoever has class with her, both directing actors and Spanish, has a great opportunity.”