In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

91 Chapter 9 Blessed and Tormented “Iwas surprised because I was a teenager and had never really gotten to hear my father speak Spanish,” Brian recalled about a family vacation to Puerto Rico in the mid-1970s when his father had lost the keys to the hotel room.1 Bob had gone around asking people in Spanish if they could help the family look for the keys. The experience was also an awakening for Bob. As he says, “It made me realize that it was important to me to find my roots again.”2 He had never abandoned his Hispanic roots, of course. There always had been reminders of his heritage in both social and professional circles. Bob’s friend George Propp remembered the Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf (CAID) meeting in Los Angeles in 1977 when a Mexican buffet banquet was served aboard the ocean liner Queen Mary, a tourist attraction docked at the Long Beach pier. The ticket price was a then-exorbitant $25 and several deaf friends who had congregated at one point during the banquet commented a bit negatively on the flavorless Mexican cuisine. Bob promised them a true Mexican fiesta the next day if they would meet him after the morning sessions. When they did, Bob took them down several blocks from the convention location to Olvera Street, where he had killed time as a kid while traveling to Berkeley. The restaurant was still in operation in the barrio district and, as Propp recounted, “We all had a lunch that was twice as copious as the banquet dinner and set us back something like $1.80, which I believe included beer.”3 Bob and Gil Delgado also continued their close friendship, highlighted by professional trips to Spain, Argentina, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Brazil. In the Spanish-speaking countries, they presented as a team, usually to educators. Neither Bob nor Delgado knew the sign languages 92 Moments of Truth of these countries and they met primarily with hearing persons. There were no deaf leaders like Bob to be found in these Spanish-speaking countries, and the hearing professionals were amazed to see Bob representing a college and holding such a leadership position. The fact that Bob also could speak Spanish was even more impressive. Bob, of course, faced this language barrier with his usual energetic style. Since he did not know their sign languages, Delgado interpreted spoken Spanish into American Sign Language. During their first trip to Madrid in 1985, Bob was slated to give a presentation to an elite group of Spanish educators of deaf students. The evening before, he was practicing the presentation in the hotel room, reading it out loud in Spanish. Dr. Jorge Soler, a native Spaniard, and Delgado were listening as Bob came across the word obstáculo (obstacle) and pronounced it with the accent on the “u” instead of the “a.” What Bob didn’t know was that when pronounced in that manner, the word took on a vulgar meaning (culo being street Spanish for “ass”) and should not be spoken in public. Bob turned around, completely puzzled over why Soler and Delgado were laughing so hard. Needless to say, the three of them found another word for obstáculo in Bob’s presentation! In Argentina, also in 1985, Bob was the main guest of a group of deaf persons in Buenos Aires for a barbacoa (barbeque). The dinner was held outside on a deck and the guests were served morcillas, or blood sausage, considered a delicacy in that country. Naturally, the guest of honor was given the first two morcillas with much flourish. A wary Bob asked Delgado what it was and was told, “blood sausage.” Bob, being somewhat finicky about strange foods, smiled, thanked the chef and when no one was looking, pitched the sausages over his back to the street below. Seeing none on his plate a short time later, his hosts were delighted that he was enjoying the dinner. They brought him more. The same sequence of events occurred with Bob tossing them and being given more. Bob remembers that the dogs on the street below the deck had a feast that evening. Despitehiswarinessofsomeculinaryitems,gratitudeforBob’ssupport of the Hispanic community came in many forms and from many voices. Perhaps one of the finest tributes he received was from the Spanish Association of Educators of the Deaf and Language Disorders, which recognized him in 1985 as the year’s “Member of Honor.” Bob...

Share