During her doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley, Siapno studied the independence movements of Aceh and East Timor in Indonesia. She lived and worked in Aceh for several years. While studying in Indonesia, Siapno met her future husband, Fernando de Araújo, an East Timorese dissident and political prisoner who was serving a seven years in prison for "subversion against the state" in Jakarta at the time. The two exchanged letters from prison, though Indonesian authorities sometimes held the letters for up to six months. Upon Fernando de Araújo's release, Siapno moved to East Timor with him. The couple had one son, Hadomi. In a 2009 interview, Siapno "I want Hadomi to be both Filipino and Timorese."
