The Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial commonly known as El Escorial is a historical residence of the King of Spain, in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, about 28 miles northwest of the capital, Madrid, in Spain. It is one of the Spanish royal sites and functions as a monastery, royal pa-lace, museum, and school.

Deaf History in Spain It is most curious, given that Spanish histori-

cal documents laud the importance of the “Spanishness” of teaching the mute to speak, that the country that is today regarded as the birthplace of deaf education (Spain) should come to be reinvigorated by direct influence from America. As the act of tracing the circui-tous route of this movement (Spain to France to America to Spain) constitutes the whole of this volume, for the moment it is sufficient to say that deaf education in Spain was brought to France by a teacher named Jacobo Rodríguez Pereira, that this transposition would ultimately see the development of Abbé Charles-Michel de l’Epée’s “methodical” signs (spoken-language grammar rendered in visual form), and that the transmission of sign language to the United States occurred through none other than Lau-rent Clerc, a deaf instructor who accompanied Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet from France to found the first school for the deaf in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1817.

Juan Pablo Bonet Juan Pablo Bonet (c.1573–1633) was a Spanish priest and pioneer of education for the deaf. He pub-lished the first book on deaf education in 1620 in Madrid. Juan Pablo Bonet was born in Zaragoza (Aragon), and became secretary to Juan Fernández de Ve-lasco, 5th Duke of Frías, Constable of Castile. While serving in the constable's household, Bonet ob-

served the methods of a tutor hired to teach Luis, the constable’s second son, who was deaf from birth. In this wealthy and titled family as well as in others related by marriage or birth were a number of deaf sons and daughters whose par-ents wanted them educated in addition to their hearing siblings. Some of the deaf sons were in line to inherit the family’s properties, and literacy was a requirement for legal recognition as an heir.

The modern recorded history of sign lan-guage began in the 17th century in Spain, in part with Bonet. In 1620, Juan Pablo Bonet published Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos ("Summary of the letters and the art of teaching speech to the mute") in Madrid. Considered the first mod-ern treatise of the phonetics of sign language and the use of sign language to teach speech to the deaf, this book depicted Bonet's form of a manual alphabet. His intent was to further the oral and manual education of deaf people in Spain.

Bonet's system of signs and manual alphabet has influenced many sign languages, such as Spanish Sign Language, French Sign Language, and American Sign Language.

Engravings by Diego de Astor of Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mu-dos (Bonet, 1620):

Juan Fernandez de Navarrete Juan Fernandez de Navarrete was born in the beautiful town of Navarre, Spain near the mountain range of the Pyrenees. He was called El Mudo (the mute) since childhood. He lost his hearing at the age of three and never learned to talk. Juan's amazing draw-ings skills became evi-dent when he began communicating his

needs by drawing them out with charcoal on paper. The young artist never allowed his disa-bilities to hamper his dreams or ambitions and allowed his art to become his voice.

Bishop Pedro Ponce de León Dom Pedro Ponce de Leon, O.S.B., (1520–1584) was a Spanish Benedictine monk who is often credited as being "the first teacher for the deaf". Ponce de Leon estab-lished a school for the deaf at the San Salvador Monas-tery in Oña. His students were almost all children of wealthy aristocrats who could afford private tutoring. His work with deaf children focused on helping them to learn how to speak lan-guage audibly. He also instructed children in writ-ing and in simple gestures. Ponce de Leon is not known to have developed a working sign language, but there is some indica-tion from the writings of Juan Pablo Bonet (see on the left)—who never credited him for his method—that Ponce de Leon developed a manual alpha-bet which would allow a student who mastered it to spell out (letter by letter) any word. This alpha-bet was based, in whole or in part, on the simple hand gestures used by monks living in silence. Ponce de Leon's work with the deaf was con-sidered bold by contemporaries, as the prevailing opinion among most Europeans in the 16th centu-ry was that the deaf were incapable of being edu-cated. Many laymen even believed that the deaf were too simple-minded to be eligible for salvation under Christian doctrine. In Ponce, Puerto Rico, there is a school for deaf children named Colegio Fray Pedro Ponce de León. It is located in Urbanización La Rambla.

Monument to Pedro Ponce de León, Parque del Buen Retiro, Madrid, Spain GPS coordinates: 40° 25' 12.79" N 3° 40' 54.49" W

Infante Jaime of Spain "Deaf and Dumb" Infante Jaime of Spain, Duke of Segovia, Duke of An-jou, RE (Jaime Leopoldo Isabelino Enrique Alejandro Alberto Alfonso Víctor Acacio Pedro Pablo María de Borbón y Bat-

tenberg) (23 June 1908 – 20 March 1975), was the second son of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and his wife Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg. He was born in the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso in Segovia Province. Because he was deaf, as the re-sult of a childhood operation, he re-nounced his rights to the Spanish throne for himself and his descend-ants on 21 June/23 June 1933. He was then created the title for life of Duke of Segovia by King Alfonso XIII. After his father's death in 1941,

he proclaimed himself the senior legitimate male heir of the House of Capet, heir to the French throne, and head of the House of Bourbon. He then took the title of Duke of An-jou and became, in the opinion of French legitimists, the de jure King of France. He was known to most French legitimists as Henri VI, though to a minority as Jacques II (after 1957, he signed all documents as Jacques Henri). In 1921, he became the 1,153rd Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece and Knight with Collar of the Order of Charles III and Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic both in 1925 (Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic in 1931). He died in Switzerland was buried at El Escorial in Madrid, Spain.

Parque del Buen Retiro

Dom Pedro Ponce de León teaching a pupil

More Notable Deaf Persons in Spain

1525?-1579: Juan Ximenes de Fernandez Navarrete, nick-named "El Mudo". Born at Logrono, Spain; deafened at age 3 by illness; no formal education except in drawing and painting at a monastery. After extensive travels in Italy, he was ap-pointed painter to King Philip II, March 6, 1568. Commis-sioned to paint 32 altars and the high altarpiece for the basili-ca of San Lorenzo in the Escorial near Madrid, he had com-pleted only 8 when he died young and was buried in the church of San Juan de los Reyes, Toledo.

1535-1664: In addition to Luis de Velasco (below), the Velas-co family of Spain had other deaf members, about whom little is known: Francisco (fl. 1540?), who died while still a child; Pedro (1540?-1572); Geronimo (1588-?); Anna (1589-?), Catalina (16th century) and Bernardina (16th century). Fran-cisco and Pedro were students of Pedro Ponce de Leon, who also supposedly also taught Anna and Catalina to the point where both could and did become nuns.

1550-1578: Francisco de Tobar was the eldest son born to Juan de Velasco, Marquis of Berlanga, in the house of Tobar in Spain. His brother Pedro (above) was also deaf, and some sources claim a third deaf brother, Enrique, and either one or two deaf sisters. Francisco and Pedro were among the earli-est known deaf persons to be educated, when Pedro Ponce de Leon taught them. The purpose of this education was to allow Francisco to inherit his father's titles, otherwise barred to deaf people at the time.

1617: Gaspar de Burgos is said to have been the most suc-cessful pupil of Pedro Ponce de Leon. Burgos became a manuscript writer and painter of miniatures in Spain.