Introduction (Summer Crider):
Linguistic imperialism is the process of a dominant language overtaking other languages around the world. English often asserts its power over other languages, influencing, controlling, and ultimately changing these languages. Linguistic imperialism often occurs within deaf signing communities. One particular example regarding this concept has to do with my own experience. During my college days, I studied abroad in Costa Rica for give months, studying Spanish and Costa Rica’s sign language. While I was acquiring their languages and interacting with the deaf community there, I started to recognize the similarities between their sign language, LESCO (Lengua de Señas Costarricense), and ASL. I later discovered that approximately 70% of their signs were developed with the influence of ASL. As of late, I’ve been taking a deeper look at linguistic imperialism through courses and studying various cultures and languages, and I was often reminded of Costa Rica. In January 2009, I had the opportunity to attend a conference centered on bilingual education of deaf people in Latin America, hosted in Costa Rica. I went back to Costa Rica and participated in the conference and created some documentation. I met Alexander Hernandez, a community historian who is quite knowledgeable and passionate about his local history and specifically the history of signs in Costa Rica prior to the influence of ASL. I sat with him and wanted to learn more about this particular history, and he willingly shared with me the history of LESCO.
History (Alexander Hernandez):
Hello, my name is Alexander Hernandez. I will share a recollection of a day some time ago when I ran into a group of older deaf people. We started chatting, and I met Daniel. While conversing with him, I was awed by his signs, which were clearly from the past. We continued the conversation, and I caught fingerspelling that was clearly from the past. Here is the “old” alphabet. (demonstration).
I saw this and I was just taken aback. Stumped, I asked him why the alphabet has changed since then, and he didn’t have a clear answer. I considered this and wanted to explore the history of the sign language that deaf people used back then. What Daniel then shared with me was fascinating; he said that in the back then, when he was born and his family discovered his deafness, they weren’t sure how to handle this. Back in 1930, there were no schools for deaf children so mothers would often become the teacher. Mothers often weren’t sure how to best educate their children and would resort to gestures and facial expressions, as well as lip reading. An example is “mama,” which is expressed by touching the face. From these gestures, children would create connections to the meanings and eventually resort to these gestures as home signs. Once these home signs were repeated enough, they became accepted and spread throughout Costa Rica, resulting in an official sign. This was how it was back then. I saw this during our conversation and realized that our signs were developed from such origins. This didn’t apply to just Daniel, but also shared by other local older deaf people. I had a desire to document all this information right away but kept talking with Daniel. I then asked how was LESCO originated, what influenced our signs? Daniel suggested that through a series of gestures and constant interactions over time, certain signs were developed and became accustomed. I inquired as to how deaf schools were established. He stated that initially, only a small number of deaf students attended school and this eventually led to the establishment of the first deaf school in 1940. This school used the oralism approach during classes. Students would attend classes and speak during classes, but often signed with each other in private. Over time, these students interacted at school as they grew up. These students became adults and departed into their own lives, with their own families. An association wasn’t yet formed, but deaf people often gathered to meet and socialize, take trips together, and so on. This group that gathered together became the deaf community as we know it. This community often gathered at a specific spot in downtown San José, at the same location every time. There weren’t thoughts of establishing an association just yet; the community was content with their frequent gatherings. One deaf individual “Rico” came upon One such gathering and was intrigued; however, the community communicated in sign language An Rico hadn’t learned sign language. Through gestures and facial expressions, he began interacting with the community. Soon enough, he gathered a few individuals and they all established the Asociación Nacional de Sordos de Costa Rica in 1974. Through the Asociación, deaf people had an easier time gathering and found many familiar faces from their school days. Soon enough, a small group of professors from Gallaudet University flew to Costa Rica and Rico introduced them to the deaf community, including Allan Fernandez as a young boy. These professors studied linguistics and studied the different signs used by deaf people here. These professors then gathered a group of deaf people and asked them for specific signs used within the community and found that there were numerous different signs for the same word, such as “mama.” The professors were taken aback by this but the community accepted this fact; deaf people had become accustomed to each other’s signs from their various backgrounds, and the numerous signs didn’t bother them. They didn’t insist on one sign for each word. The linguists deliberated this and made suggestions for uniform sign, picking specific home signs already used. The other home signs were eliminated. The deaf community accepted these suggestions. The professors brought up other words, such as “quien,” and sometimes the community didn’t have any sign for these words. The professors would then suggest a sign based on the ASL equivalent, such as “who.” This was accepted by the community, regardless of the fact that this was ASL. The community accepted this without any concerns, and the signs became LESCO as we know it today.
I don’t intend to blame ASL; rather, we should thank these professors for encouraging the development of our signs because our schools were only oral instructed, and the standards were subpar. Teachers did not sufficiently educate students and often abused students as well, leading to allow-quality education. Students were frustrated and they learned to tune out during class, instead focusing on their leisure time. This social time is significant but this also means their Spanish skills became weak and quite minimal. Students often turned to sign language, but they began to use less LESCO and instead increasingly utilized ASL, which was beginning to grow in Costa Rica. I estimate that approximately 40% of our signs are genuine LESCO and the remaining 60% is ASL, with other random signs mixed in.
I’ve considered all of this and I would like to gather a group of deaf individuals to meet regarding this- I have tried, but many are often unable to meet, but it is still something I would like to do. What I’d like to do is to look at the different signs and different forms of the manual alphabet out there and document all forms, creating a dictionary for Costa Rica. However, I’ve noticed one interesting thing. A group of deaf people from Guatemala visited Costa Rica recently. I observed their sign language and realized that some of their signs and manual alphabet were quite similar to the old form of LESCO. I asked them about the origins of their signs and they said their signs just “bloomed,” just like here in Costa Rica as well. I considered this: Costa Rica’s signs originated with the establishment of its first deaf school in 1940, and Guatemala’s first deaf school opened in 1945. Did LESCO influence their signs? How did both languages originate and become so similar to each other? This is something I’d like to investigate further.
Thank you for your time.