Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

 This is me at the royal library in El Escorial. Here, they have a document that was of particular interest to me! It was written by a Deaf woman named Teresa de Cartagena! So the story goes and from what I understood, there was an important, well educated family that had a daughter. At age eighteen she went deaf. Following that life changing experience, she wrote a treatise on how her deafness brought her closer to God. This capitalized on her Deaf “lens”.  People were shocked and It was so good, that people believed that a man had written it and the criticizing her for claiming it as her own. She wrote a second piece in response, arguing that if God could inspire men to write great works, he could just as easily inspire women to do the same. She used the verse in Genesis that talks about Eve being made as “an help meet”. To paraphrase she says: “who is stronger? The one who helps or the one needing the help?” That’s a Mike drop if I ever heard one. I especially love it because it capitalizes on her feminine “lens”. She sees the world differently and and uses both her deafness and her gender to make valuable contributions that others couldn’t make.

I think this woman is important because she is proving that both women and Deaf people can be competent and even genius. There is a word in the Deaf community, intersectionality, that describes the added discrimination that Deaf people can experience when they are part of an additional minority group. Even though being a woman is not a minority group, the principle applies. I love that she boldly represented herself and stood her ground  despite the sexist pushback. She also stood up for Deaf power and positively by writing about how her so-called “disability”was a strength. I don’t know the history of the Deaf power movement in Europe, but fighting the idea that deafness is a disability has been the narrative for years. Personally I just think it was really cool to learn about her!

Now of course the question is, do I think that she had been commemorated well? Of course not! I had nothing to take a picture next to except the library where her treatise is housed. Yes I know it is  a very special library but it wasn’t displayed and I had never heard about this fantastic woman ever before in my life! I was missing out. However, like I was saying previously, I don’t know much Deaf history from Europe, I have only learned the American side, so maybe she is more recognized here and I am just unaware. Anyways, I still feel that it could be better. At the end of the day I just think she is so cool because she is a religious Deaf feminist and that just makes me happy.