Region V

REPORT

Jeremy Quiroga, CDI Region V Representative

Jeremy Quiroga, lives in Washington. He is a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology.

Enculturation. You are what you pick up from your environment, like a grape picks up the climate and soil to become a certain terroir. All these layers build how we see the world from the influence of family, friends, school, etc. We then use that and apply it to the world. I have known some people who like the comforts of the world in which they grew up. There is no longer a becoming. Their learning, alongside the development of emotional intelligence, has come to a pause or even ceased. Yet, there are people I have watched blossom into beautiful human beings over and over again. I value and strive for regrowth — as an interpreter and as a human — realizing what I grew up with is not always the truth and that others carry truth as well.

My experience as a Deaf person is of growing up in the shadow of being culturally different in a world full of hearing people, in a system built for them. All the etiquette of noise and sound was explained to me and emphasized again and again. I watched all my life how much value sound has in creating the system that we exist in. Going to a Deaf school was a life-changer. It was a place where I grew and learned values and cultural norms that felt natural to me. My language blossomed. I was exposed to role models who were Deaf and carried themselves with great pride. That was part of my Deafhood journey, and I know from firsthand experience living in both worlds how very different they are.

A Deafhood journey is so complicated and so varied; there are many different stories about how Deaf people are raised. Often growing up is not a very positive experience for Deaf people because communication with their own families is often hindered, and they (we) are required to do things that do not feel natural. Those early life adversities are just one of the multitudes of struggles that Deaf people experience. Many of us, in the end, find our joy in being part of the Deaf community because we share the same language, culture, and values. A place where we learned that we have our own history, poetry, theater, and sports organizations, which becomes a part of our lives for years to come. Those complex layers of struggling or thriving, being born in Deaf culture or finding it later in life, weave us into a web that connects us to DeafSpace.

A hearing interpreter who grew up hearing will always align naturally to being a hearing person. How much time do you invest in DeafSpace — the true space where Deaf people exist to live and think? I am not referring to having Deaf friends who come to your house and have dinner with hearing people around. I mean when you go to a Deaf-hosted party, have a Deaf night out, attend different Deaf-related festivals, or participate in online video meetings full of Deaf people. Imagine the nuances and various cultural behaviors you would learn and the opportunity to talk about and grow from.

Are you that person who thinks you have reached the top and no longer need to grow? How many marginalized communities around us are begging us to open our hearts and change what we think we know to become better people, which in turn will make us better interpreters? That, for me, is one of the most crucial ethical choices you can make.