Gestural history and the becoming of the deaf community in Quito

Abstract

This article analyzes the becoming of the deaf community in the city of Quito, linked to the development of a language of their own. It is base on the memories of Guillermo Zurita, founder of the first sport club for deaf people in Ecuador and those of Alfredo Toro, founder of the first association. From these memories, we problematize the communal living and socialization of the deaf people of Ecuador in the first institutions established for their education and the difficulties they faced there. We show that although a group emerges, it is temporary, unstable, and passing, since it does not depend on the deaf people but on the institutionality that marks the school. Then, we will describe how deaf people make use of their agency to meet, create spaces of socialization and social links that, although limited, contributed to the development of common senses and a language of their own. Finally, we will present the consolidation of the community as a formal organizational effort from the first association of deaf people in the country. These last two spaces let them to imagine a community, endowed with its own characteristics, senses and shared aspirations.