Congratulations Alvaro “Al” Jimenez for receiving November 2014’s #NADHandwave! He was nominated because he’s the first official Spanish teacher at a school for the deaf who both uses Lengua Senas de Mexicana (LSM) as a bridge for the Latin@ students and teaches it alongside Spanish to the remaining students. This is a rare occurrence for a school to have a trilingual and a native LSM user as a teacher, and we applaud Texas School for the Deaf in welcoming multilingualism into their school.
Al graduated from Colegio “El Pacifico AC” in June of 1984 and obtained a diploma in Social Humanities and went on to Southwest Collegiate Institute of the Deaf/Howard College to get training in General Education and certification as a paraprofessional in May of 1999 before attending Gallaudet University and earning a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish in May of 2008. He is currently a graduate student at Lamar University working to earn his Master’s degree in Deaf Education. He recently gave a very engaging and informative presentation on the history of LSM at the 4th conference of National Hispano Council of Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
During his educational journey, Al also participated in numerous conferences regarding deaf education in various settings. To name a few, he presented at the Leadership Empowerment of Human Rights program for deaf children in Guanajuato, Guanajuato; taught at an elementary school in Spain; attended the Latin American Congress on Bilingual Education for Deaf People; presented at the World Federation of the Deaf Congress about his successful efforts to get Argentina to recognize Argentine Sign Language as an official language.
While he’s not busy advocating, he enjoys reading, snowboarding, surfing, skateboarding, playing racquetball, mountain biking, and loves to travel. He is currently the Vice President of the Texas Latino Council of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Thank you Al for being a pioneer in the deaf and hard of hearing community!
The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) gives monthly #NADHandwaves to people in our community. This is great opportunity for the NAD to recognize exemplary people who do the work they do. With such great people, the world continues to move. If you know someone who deserves a #NADHandwave, submit your suggestion online!
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The NAD was established in 1880 by deaf leaders who believed in the right of the American deaf community to use sign language, to congregate on issues important to them, and to have its interests represented at the national level. As a nonprofit federation, the mission of the NAD is to preserve, protect, and promote the civil, human, and linguistic rights of deaf and hard of hearing people in the United States. The advocacy scope of the NAD is broad, covering the breadth of a lifetime and impacting future generations in the areas of early intervention, education, employment, health care, technology, telecommunications, youth leadership, and more.