LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Grisell Santiago was nominated by a student, Jenina Yutuc.

Lutuc describes Santiago as "the most intelligent, nuanced, and well-learned woman I know."  Beyond language learning, Santiago introduced Yutuc to magical realism and El Boom, two unique forms of latin-american literature. Santiago has been Yutuc's Spanish teacher for four years and her lessons have empowered Yutuc as a person of color, beginning in Spanish 2 in Lutuc's freshman year of high school.

"At that point, I did not authentically have a strong woman of color as an academic rolemodel. For the past four years, she has not only educated me in enhancing my Spanish knowledge in its vocabulary, pronunciation, and fluency but also, Sra. Santiago opened doors to divergent Latin American cultures and customs, garnering a less dogmatic view of the world," Yutuc said. "Such learning provides me the ability to attain and accumulate multiple perspectives on varying subjects, such as politics, culture, and social matters."

Through Santiago's tutelage, Yutuc learned how magical realism had served as en effective literary protest against civilian violence, dictatorships, revolutions, and war.  Yutuc developed new perspectives on the the effects of Spanish colonization and the involvement of the United States. Santiago delivered a nuanced curriculum that challenged a lot of common Amero-centric assumptions.  

"She was the luminary that taught me to never allow anyone to silence my indignance, to proudly stand strong with my beliefs as the catalysts for change and consciousness in all disciplines, instead of limiting myself in just one," Yutuc said.

"She is a superhero. She taught me to fight tirelessly, even when I am the only one standing. Spanish has been the only class in my high school career that consistently pushed for a truly conscious and diverse learning." Yutuc believes that while other classes speak to diversity, Santiago takes the issue head on. "Spanish and Sra. Santiago fills such paucity because she utilizes her class as a mechanism to lionize the forgotten stories, politics, literature, culture and histories," Yutuc said. "As a woman of color, I am grateful that Sra. Santiago and Spanish offer safe spaces for our narratives through the learning of global politics and literature. Spanish is my first colonizer's language, a fact that I share with Latin Americans. This shared truculent, linguistic legacy galvanized ferocious solidarity. Not only has the class ameliorated my Spanish, but it enabled me to become epistemically nuanced, confident in the veracity of myself and my heritage."