Sisters live their faith through sign language
Fridays are the happiest days for Jazmín and Nancy López, two sisters from Mexico ages 12 and 9 respectively, who live in Menlo Park.
Not only because it’s the beginning of the weekend but because they can reunite once again with their parents after having spent five days and nights at school and are able to watch with their family a program called La Virgen de Guadalupe on a Latino channel at 10 p.m.
Both Jazmín and Nancy suffer from Usher’s syndrome, a hereditary disorder that affects hearing and vision. Both girls were born with severe deafness and though they can see, it is unknown whether the disease could advance and leave them blind.
“I noticed that Jazmín was deaf when she was 7 months old, I cried and I could not believe what was happening to me, I did not want to accept it,” said Francisco Javier López, the father of both girls. Three years later, while the López family was living in the town of Jalisco, Mexico, they were going through the same situation with Nancy, their second daughter.
“My parents helped us a lot to accept this situation and now I am very proud of my girls because they are outstanding persons,” Francisco said.
Rocío, the mother of the little girls, remembers that in Mexico they did not have access to specialized schools for the Deaf nor did they have any resources to offer. “They used audio equipment that had been donated by others but it was useless and not adequate for their needs,” she said.
After putting up with the scoffing, humiliation and the mistreatment that Jazmín endured at the hands of her schoolmates in a traditional school in México, Francisco decided to immigrate to the United States in 2003 in search of a better life for his family. A year later, his wife and two daughters arrived in the Bay Area.
“The transition has not been easy,” Francisco said. “When we lived in Mexico, I taught them sign language based on what I thought the meaning of a word could be like eating or going to the bathroom, since there was no school for them.”
Years later the little ones learned sign language in Spanish, quite different than the one taught by their father; and when they were practicing it they arrived in the United States, where American Sign Language is used.
For Rocío and Francisco it has also been a challenge since their English is very limited.
“Sometimes they spell a word for me, but I don’t know how to write it or what it means,” Francisco said. “Every day I learn signs with the girls and if I don’t understand I ask them to give me an example or to make a drawing or a dramatization so that we can learn the word.”
Moreover, on Thursdays he learns sign language for one and one-half hours at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont where the girls also study.
A year ago the girls underwent a surgical cochlear implant during which an electronic device is placed in the internal ear that can detect sounds from the environment. Nowadays, the girls are capable of hearing loud noises like sirens from fire trucks, the police, the doorbell at home, but are unable to identify sounds correctly.
One of the requirements for this surgical procedure was that the girls attend the Fremont school where they are in sixth and second grade and where they sleep during the week.
“It is better here than in Mexico because my teachers are deaf and also my schoolmates, so life is a lot easier,” Jazmín said through her father. “In Mexico it was very difficult and the signs were so different from the ones here, besides only a few people use them,” quips the younger one, who enjoys communicating with her friends by videophone during her free time.
Also using her father as an interpreter, Nancy said that what she likes most is to read and that she is happy at school because they teach her how to add, to read and more hand signs, but also adds that she does not like to stay overnight at the school because she misses her parents. “Over there I am alone and I would like to be with my family,” she said.
The one in charge of teaching them about the faith is Francisco, who is Catholic and has been taking them to St. Francis of Assisi Church in East Palo Alto where they met Father Paul Zirimenya. Father Zirimenya is chaplain for the community of Deaf in the Archdiocese of San Francisco made up of over 3,000 families.
“Father comes to church and teaches them prayers, the Bible and talks about God and the Virgin. They taught them the Our Father, respect for others and the importance of Mass,” Francisco said.
During a recent written interview with Catholic San Francisco, Father Zirimenya stated that one of the challenges facing his ministry is the lack of interpreters for the Catholic Deaf. Moreover, he said, parents don’t even know sign language and they cannot teach them the faith.
In Francisco’s case, he learns Catholic sign language with his daughters.
“When they attend church reunions they tell us what they have learned because we as parents don’t have any interpreters to help us understand; there isn’t anyone else to teach us the signs of the Church,” he said.
According to Father Zirimenya, Deaf Catholics continue to be the “lost sheep” of the Catholic Church who due to lack of support go to Protestant churches where they find interpreters and access to services; the priest urges all lay persons who know sign language to get involved in the ministry.
“I’d like to see more of a commitment on the part of the Church and the services for the Deaf; more commitment to train priests in the use of sign language,” Father Zirimenya wrote.
For the time being, the Lopez family will continue with their weekly Friday rendezvous with La Virgen de Guadalupe program, which Francisco interprets for his daughters.
“They believe greatly in the Virgin and before going to bed they pray that they would be cured of their illness,” he said.
RESOURCES FOR DEAF CATHOLICS
American Sign Language Masses
• Archdiocese of San Francisco
St. Benedict Parish at St. Francis Xavier Church
1801 Octavia St., San Francisco
Sundays, 10:30 a.m.
• Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament
St. Patrick Seminary and University
320 Middlefield Rd., Menlo Park
Second Saturday of the month, 10:00 a.m.
• Chapel of Marin Catholic High School
675 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Kentfield
Fourth Sunday of the month, 4:00 p.m.
Ministry For The Deaf
Father Zirimenya can be reached at St. Benedict Parish or by videophone at (866) 720-0102 or (866) 896-0968. You can also call (TDD) (415) 567-9855 or visit their web page at www.SFDeafCatholics.org
By José Luis Aguirre
From May 21, 2010 issue of Catholic San Francisco
