Hanna Mignano

Interpreting Practicum Fall 2021

10/21/21

Professional Development

1 hr.

RIT NTID ASL Lecture Series: Through the Decades: The Hispanic/Latino Deaf Experience at NTID

This lecture began with some signed trivia on Hispanic culture, of which I know very little. But

the receptivity practice was well worth it. It was also a great opportunity to review and revisit some of

my country, especially South American countries, signs. I have neglected reviewing those for a while

so this was a great refresher and reminder to keep it up. Moving on into the lecture, it was a webinar

with four hispanic and/or multiracial (one individual was Guatemalan and Chinese) signers. They each

share a bit of their backgrounds, cultural history , and how they came to learn ASL. I found it very

interesting to learn about the various multicultural influences from each person , and how those

influences come into play in their personal identity. This webinar started a great discussion on cultural

identity and diversity within deaf culture. Diversity is a major and recurring theme today and is so

important to be mindful of. I appreciated the lecture's emphasis on intersectionality ; that these cultural

-linguistic crossovers occur and how , as interpreters, we must be open minded and aware enough to

navigate them. It made me think more about what it means to have an identity, to belong to a culture as

an individual but also function as part of a community. They each shared their various religious

denominations as well, as this varies also from culture to culture. Much like the previous lectures I

watched about Black ASL, this webinar left me curious to learn more about hispanic and latino cultures

within the deaf community, and to explore what some of those countries' own sign language is like.