1 Pedro Ponce de Leon: Myth and Reality Susan Plann Editor's Introduction This essay focuses on the myths surrounding the life and career of a Spanish Benedictine monk, Pedro Ponce de Leon, recognized by most historians as the first teacher of deaf children. It is much more than the traditional account of a hearing teacher bringing enlightenment to deaf children, however, for author Susan Plann brings a new perspective to the subject. The Ponce she describes is not the retiring, contemplative , self-denying individual of legend, but someone indeed much more interesting and certainly more human. Plann's most significant contribution to an understanding of deaf history, though, lies in two important suggestions. First, she recognizes , unlike other scholars, that the deaf children whom Ponce taught must have arrived at the monastery already using signs. They were from a family with several deaf children, and, as Plann argues, it is impossible to believe that they did not utilize home signs among themselves. Thus the conclusion of early historians, that Ponce taught these children with signs and fingerspelling used by Benedictine monks, requires modification. The communication method employed by Ponce and his students was an amalgamation, a combination, of those signs Ponce knew from his experience as a monk in a nonspeaking order and those used by his deaf students, the Velascos. In short, from the earliest recorded example of deaf education, there is reason to believe that deaf people themselves helped provide the means for their own learning. They were not mere passive recipients of hearing largesse and expertise; they too brought something significant to the educational process. Plann's second important point tells more about the hearing world's perception of deafness and deaf people than it does about deaf people themselves. She develops the compelling hypothesis that deaf artist Juan Fernandez Navarrete (1526-1579) should be recognized as the 1 2 Susan Plann first educated deaf person, not the Velasco children. He could read, write, figure, and of course, paint, but he could not speak and indeed was called the Mute. Hearing people who have chronicled the past, therefore, were not impressed with him or his teacher, but they were impressed with Ponce: he taught his charges speech. To the hearing world, then, speaking ability was the hallmark of an educated person. This attitude, perhaps still prevalent today, may help explain why deaf people have had to struggle so hard to prove their intelligence to a skeptical speaking world. DURING THE SECOND HALF of the sixteenth century, a Spanish monk, Fray Pedro Ponce de Le6n, educated deaf children of noble birth at the Benedictine monastery of ana, in northern Spain's Burgos province. At that time, it was widely held that deaf people could not receive instruction; Ponce's work gave the lie to this belief. Moreover , at a time when deafness and muteness were thought to be inextricably linked, Ponce taught his pupils to speak. For these achievements , Ponce was "renowned in all the world," according to his funeral eulogy.1 History has left relatively little information about Ponce, despite the fame he achieved during his lifetime. Many writers seem to agree on the following four points, however: (1) he was a descendant of the glorious Ponce de Le6n lineage; (2) within the cloister at ana, he led a simple, unworldly life, which afforded him ample time for contemplating the teaching of deaf children; (3) for the instruction of his deaf charges, Ponce should be credited with a considerable intellectual breakthrough; and (4) he was the first teacher of deaf people. All these assertions are part myth and part reality. Ponce's Lineage According to one of the monks at ana who wrote nearly a century after his death, Ponce was of noble lineage, a descendant of Count Ponce de Minerva.2 Nevertheless, there is no record of Ponce's parentage , and a constellation of facts suggest that he may well have been illegitimate.3 The first suggestion that something may have been amiss comes from Romualdo de Escalona, Ponce's contemporary and the historian of the monastery of San Benito el Real, at Sahagun, in Le6n province. [18.206.76.45] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 08:58 GMT) Pedro Ponce de Leon: Myth and Reality 3 Ponce had professed his vows at Sahagun before transferring to San Salvador at Ona, where he spent most of his life. Escalona, the historian , never seemed to miss a chance to proclaim the noble parentage of his fellow...