Shía Arbulú virtual literary meeting. 2020-21

The Language Department of Colegio Alborán organizes various activities to promote reading throughout the academic year, among which we highlight the literary meetings with writers.
In this course and for health reasons, all visits are being virtual.
On May 10, Shía Arbulú, writer, award-winning playwright and teacher shared with the high school students a great reading experience of her work "Crossing Borders", a book read by our students and worked on in the classroom.
Shía, also a theater director and 2018 Nadal Award Finalist, invites us to reflect in this exciting book on what happens to refugee minors after wars through four different perspectives.
With a great literary vocation, (eight books written) he began writing theater after finishing university, he has been teaching acting for more than twenty years and many of his original works have been performed, with excellent reviews, in theaters throughout Spain. She is the current director of the Momo School of the Arts, in Marbella.
Both the characters and the structure of "Crossing Borders" have attracted our students, as well as the aspects related to the obstacles that are in the way. "It is a journey to leave the country, to cross borders when you do not have help or authorization on the way."
They are deep stories, about which Shía has documented a lot, which show that although the situation of uprooting is different in each of these children and young people, their concerns are common to those of any adolescent.
Shía tries to bring us closer to her social perspective and her interests from the point of view of the youngest, for this reason they are narrated from different points of view. Certainly, "We all cross borders, there are many occasions when we do not have permission to do so."
Closely, he explained that the borders that are crossed can be physical, personal, what we understand by good and evil, legal and illegal...
In his meeting, he stressed that "literature and reading are an act of empathy", for which he tries to put himself in the place of others and look from their eyes. In this way, he brings different perspectives to his work, to approach the same story from different angles.

It was a very stimulating pedagogical activity, in which he answered all the questions that we had previously asked him, while revealing some clues to better understand this book that invites reflection, while entertaining, that deals with current issues and not leaves no reader indifferent. It really fulfills its objective: "The reason I write is to change the world, not because I think my books have the ability to do it, but because that is a good reason to write."

It has been an honor for our center to have had Shía Arbulú and we look forward to an upcoming face-to-face visit, as it has been an enriching activity from the literary point of view and the transmission of values.