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April 30, 2006

Words of Silence

From: Brownsville Herald - TX United States - Apr 30, 2006


Valley’s deaf culture thriving

BY KEVIN GARCIA
The Brownsville Herald

Keeping silent about something that affects every aspect of your life isn’t easy, but for Maria Cardenas, it felt like the right thing to do.

“My deafness was kept kind of like a secret,” Cardenas said. “It was my business and nobody else’s business.”

Then, University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College President Juliet Garcia announced to the graduating class that one of their own had earned a degree without special assistance, and who was deaf.

For Cardenas, a weight had been lifted.

“I felt so relieved,” she said. “Now that I’ve come out in the open with my disabilities, I’ve socialized more, and I’m more open when talking to deaf people. I feel more comfortable being part of the deaf world.”

Within the mix of cultures and languages that make up the Rio Grande Valley, the deaf culture often goes unnoticed and is always unheard. Speaking a language few outside their culture understand, they face the challenge of acceptance and find strength in the community.

American Sign Language, or ASL, is a language with its own grammar, colloquialisms and nuances. Those who speak it are defined by more than just language, as many in the hearing community find it easy to overlook them.

“Throughout the years, we’ve had deaf people have problems because the hearing community is not very helpful when asking for services or they need something,” said Maria Cardenas, a 29-year-old teacher for the Regional School for the Deaf at Hanna High School. “We have some cases where people see us signing, and they say, ‘What are you doing with your hands?’ ... They will say ‘I never heard of that. How do you do it?’”


That’s why the Deaf Club of South Texas was formed earlier this year. Made up of members from across the Lower Rio Grande Valley and meeting every Friday evening at Dean Porter Park, the club is trying to reach across the audio divide to spread understanding and make connections.

A team of club members faced off against other South Texas clubs in the 2006 North of the Border Games For the Deaf held April 22 in Corpus Christi. The local team earned second place overall, with a McAllen team winning first and Corpus Christi’s home team taking third.

GROWING UP DEAF

Angel Smith, 65, of Raymondville didn’t have the luxury of a deaf community growing up in the small town of Hargill.

“I felt very different from other children,” she said. “Everybody else could talk, and I wasn’t involved.”

It wasn’t long before Smith was transferred from her classes with hearing students in Hargill to the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin.

“It was a very small town, and my mother made the decision that my brother and I, who is also deaf, that we would both go to Austin,” she said. “That was because we didn’t have any deaf people around (in Hargill).”

After marrying a fellow school for the deaf student, having four children and living in other parts of the U.S., Smith returned to Texas. Three years ago, she moved to Raymondville and saw a vast improvement in the way of life for the deaf community.

Newer technologies, job opportunities, programs and school programs were available, although more improvements are needed, Smith said.

“One negative, I think, is that there hasn’t really been exposure for people to really see deaf culture,” she said, adding the same applies to younger deaf residents. “Children don’t know the deaf culture as they’re growing up. In the deaf club, they have many opportunities to learn about politics and education, and they have a place to meet.”

That has become important for younger members of the deaf culture. Students in Brownsville not only have deaf teachers and special programs, they can interact with hearing and deaf students through the public school system.

“We’re trying to expand the deaf culture,” said Joe Lara, an 18-year-old Hanna High School student. “There are a lot of people who are hard-of-hearing in Brownsville.”

IMPROVING TECHNOLOGY

When not drumming on the table or roughhousing with his friends, Lara can be seen using a T-Mobile Sidekick to chat with friends. Wireless text messaging devices have become a boon to deaf youths.

“People use Sidekicks because they are the best way to communicate,” said 18-year-old Joe Lee Marshall, a student at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College. “It’s a better way of communicating, and it can save you’re ass.”

Students aren’t allowed to use them during class, but like any other teenagers, those in deaf programs have been known to send notes to each other.

Smith agreed that technology has been good to the deaf culture.

“The video phone is a real blessing because we are able to use a video phone,” she said, adding video phones allow translator services to make phone calls easier. “People would prefer to sign because I’m deaf. If you’re hearing, you’d prefer to talk. I don’t want to write.”

Sometimes writing notes becomes necessary, said Cardenas, who was born with hearing difficulties that increased as she reached adolescence.

“Talking to people who were not aware of my disability, I would ask them to repeat themselves again, and they would get angry,” said Cardenas, the deaf club’s president. “Sometimes it would frustrate me when people would talk to me and turn their heads around and they wouldn’t give me a face-to-face.”

OVERCOMING BARRIERS

Deaf club member Sergio Saldaña was born hearing to a hearing family in Mexico but lost his hearing after experiencing a high fever at 2.

“Suddenly, I felt alone in a dark world since there were no opportunities for deaf people attending school in Matamoros,” Saldaña said.

He moved to Corpus Christi to attend a regional deaf school and learn sign language. He met other deaf students and was proud to live in a deaf world.

“I started to identify myself with my deafness,” Saldaña said. “I feel more likely to involved with the deaf world, both of me and my wife, Claudia.”

Their 3-year-old daughter Daisy already speaks three languages — Spanish, English and ASL — and their second daughter, Megan, due this summer, will likely learn several languages as well.

“She’s very smart,” Saldaña said of Daisy, adding he teaches sign to hearing adult students every week at Stell Middle School.

Cardenas said there is a willingness by both the hearing and the deaf to reach out to the other’s world, but it’s not always easy.

“I notice that deaf people try to be part of the hearing world as much as they can, but there are times when they feel shut out,” Cardenas said. “(Hearing) people don’t have an understanding about deafness, so they feel more comfortable hanging out with people that share the same culture.”

Deaf families in public situations, like at the shopping mall, notice when people stare in their direction and can be frustrated when language barriers make service difficult. As with many Spanish-speaking families, sometimes it is the bilingual younger children who act as translators for their parents.

“When I go out, people would look at me, and I would kind of go ‘OK,’” Smith said. “I just have to put up with the fact that people might look at me and try to talk to me, but I try to keep a good attitude.”

A good way to break the ice, Smith said, is showing pictures. She always has images of her children within arms reach, ready to show off at a moment’s notice.

Like parents who want their children to learn Spanish before becoming fluent in English, Cardenas is teaching both of her hearing children sign language.

“My little girl knows sign language, and my little boy is starting to learn,” she said of her children, a 3-year-old and a four-month-old. “His first word is ‘milk.’ When I teach the sign, I don’t speak.”

MOVING PAST MISCONCEPTIONS

Stereotypes also affect the deaf community. Cardenas said some people equate deaf people with indigent peddlers.

“They think ‘This is the guy that is a deaf peddler, the guy who puts the pen down and asks for money,’” she said. “We want to change that image that people have.”

Other people give the deaf community too much credit. In popular culture, especially movies and television, deaf people are presented as perfect lip readers in any situation. Cardenas said it’s not as simple as that.

“Some people will even cover their mouths, thinking that a deaf person can read their lips, and that’s a misconception,” she said. “Not every person can read lips.”

Even those who can read lips face obstacles, like thick mustaches, mumblers and people who look away during conversations.

Cardenas describes herself to hearing people as “hearing impaired,” but noted many in the deaf community find that term offensive.

“I think we need to get rid of that,” Smith said. “You can say hard of hearing or deaf. People can learn to speak. They can use a hearing aid, that’s fine. They can use a cochlear implant, that’s fine, but they are still deaf.”

More than anything, she said, hearing people need to remember that deaf people are people, too.

“The only thing is, they can’t hear you,” Smith said. “That isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”

kgarcia@brownsvilleherald.com

© 2006 The Brownsville Herald