Audition at Disney

Hello everyone, I am excited to say, I will be on another adventure in this chronicles of gilberto. I am searching for a summer job since I will be on a break during the summer. I was looking into many job opportunities, and this one came with persuasion of people who are close to me. I thought "well, I can try it out and see what happens."

So I went down to Anahiem, and went to the Casting office in the back lot of Disneyland. I was excited because this is a "dream job" really. I always wanted to try to work at Disneyland. So i went for the job, and applied at their computer center over there. I was amazed by how many people were over there -- young and old, and many various races. I was amazed to see how many people want to work at Disney -- I am sure it was their dream job as well as mine. So I applied and got to go into this room where they showed a film on "the Disney Job" and how we are suppose to be happy workers for Disney to continue Walt's Dreams of making others Happy. I thought so far, so good. I am able to do that. So, continued the film on how we are suppose to present ourselves. So far, so good. Then we took a personality quiz and I guess I answered it good because we waited a bit for another person to talk to us in their small office. One by one people who want to work for Disney came in and out. Some came out excited and some came out disappointed and you can bet you know what that meant.

My name was finally called and I went in and they told me, they want me to come back and talk to someone else. So I came back that afternoon and talked to a casting agent and he interviewed me and said that I would be able to audition for a character. I was so excited, this is exactly what I wanted to do.

The Most happiest place on Earth, and I might one day be working there!

"I'm going to Disneyland!"

I will keep you all posted!

The Language of the Deaf - ASL

Hello again to everyone, I am complete with a persuasive paper that I have worked on for one of my classes. The topic was ASL, of course, and I acknowledged that ASL is indeed a language. ASL is one of the many beautiful languages out there. In my persusasive piece I labled ASL as a language in it's own right. For many centuries when ASL was evolved from the basis of French Sign Language by Laurent Clerc and Thomas Gallaudet who formed one of the first Deaf Schools in America. After the evolution from FSL to ASL as we know it today, alot of people didn't comprehend that ASL was a language -- they thought it was just gestures that Deaf people used to communicate with one another. Since William Stokoe, from Gallaudet who is a Linguists and he came up with ways to document the grammar, syntax and certain characteristics that indeed recognizes ASL as a language.



So in this case, I wrote my paper on persuading the readers of my paper to accept that ASL is indeed a language. With cultural perspectives of a community of Deaf people who go to the same schools, share the same stories, and share a common trend in the language they convey a respect among each other. This respect is knowing ASL as a language. In short, ASL lets Deaf people come together (and hearing people who know the language as well). With ASL being the thread that holds all Deaf people together, wether they know each other from schools, communities, and other places. The idea that ASL makes the human race that are Deaf (or Hearing) can be one of the most beautiful thing about the Deaf-World. ASL transcends over time to pass on knowledge, cultural beliefs and ideas to one another. It's a generational idea of passing on things from the past to the present and onward to the future. With ASL being labeled as a language, this gives the power of Deaf Culture a continuous message that Deaf people can continue to be able to connect to one another through their language.



Recall ASL is a visual language and to be able to see and understand the language of the Deaf, is to be able to understand the culture of the Deaf-World. Now that is why ASL is a language and it will always be one of the many forms of communication that connects us all as a human race that can not only hear, but understand the whole world around them. If one doesn't understand what ASL is, then they do not really understand that there is a world known as the Deaf-World. That's the only thing an outsider will be able to understand that it's not a physical world that exist, but a world that is visible by the language of the Deaf -- ASL.

My Hands - A Poem

To be able to comprehend the notion of ASL for Deaf people, we must be able to express ourselves through ASL and that is itself a visual language. This is why vlogs (video blogs) are catching up in the Deaf-World. With the idea of sign language and video, Deaf people are able to share ideas with the world. The idea of the Internet has caught up with vlogs, and this is something I might want to explore someday. For right now, since I am a writer at heart and I love the English language I want to continue to express myself through the use of blogs and poetry. This is one poem that I got publish through poetry.com. I added this poem here for the expressive purpose of what ASL means to me. As I continue my Chronicles of Gilberto, I will be able to express all of these ideas and opinions of ASL and the Deaf-World. After all, it is a part of who I am.


My Hands

Signing with my Hands
Trying to make you understand
Your eyes follow what I say
What I want for you to understand
Is that I will love you always
My hands that tried to show
How much I love you so
The language I speak with my hands
To Words I say with my heart
Longing to hear the words that
Will never keep us apart
My ears cannot catch the sound
Which I was never around
For as long as the silence remains
Then my heart feels the pain
Why, with my wondering eyes
Do I feel the love that you provide?
We don't need words to express feelings
We need only the simple touch
With our hands and heart--we'll never be apart.
Gilberto Antonio Garcia
Copyright ©2008 Gilberto Antonio Garcia

*[a.] Barstow, CA [title] "My Hands" [pers.] "My Hands" was created to demonstrate the need for communication in any form--spoken, written, or sign language--the most beautiful of all is sign language. Sign language is a visual language as poetry is the Internet with the eyes and ears. Most of all, poetry should be interpreted with the heart. I have been writing poetry and short stories ever since the written word intrigued me, or the written word is as magical as music to an audience of Beethoven listeners. Thanks to my family, for their love has continued to inspire me to write poetry.

From: http://www.poetry.com/Publications/display.asp?ID=P1492857&BN=333&PN=1

Deaf Can

Since I was born with some hearing and able to pick up speech, I was able to fit in with the world of hearing. Sometimes, my identity of who I am was a constant struggle. Fitting in with the world that depended on voices to be heard was hard. I could hear a bit with the assistance of hearing aids. Since I was 2 years old, wearing hearing aids made me be able to grow up in the hearing world. Once my hearing beginto decline, I had to rely not on hearing the speech, but reading people's lips. This was a "guessing game" by how the words are formed on the people's lips when they talk to me. The hearing aids allowed me to hear only a small percentage of sounds, but with my being able to read lips helped a lot.
Now, I am able to fit in the hearing world, but still my struggle of identity came about when I joined CSDR -- and this was the beginning of my journey into the Deaf-World. It was at this world that I knew that my identity was that I am Deaf. Being able to communicate with both speech and ASL was to me a blessing. I was able to communicate with my friends from the Deaf-World and be able to communicate with my family and friends from the Hearing World. This path from CSDR to many things in my life, bridged the gap between these two worlds. Being at CSDR has allowed me to grow as a strong person, and be able to be successful in both worlds. Within the gates of CSDR, the knowledge of culture and language has allowed my identity as a human being to grow. I am blessed to know that these two worlds are actually a part of who I am. With my family I am able to speak, with my friends and others I am able to sign. Oftentimes, I find myself finding a comfortable environment at any place that is our world. Being with my family and friends I am able to communicate because I can hear a little bit. I am able to do sign language which to me is a beautiful language. But I always think to myself, what if I can't hear at all anymore? What if I can't hear the speech and what will happen to this "hearing world" that is not able to do sign language? Will my identity of who I am be gone? Not really.
I believe that being Deaf has allowed me to have a positive outlook in life and I am able to succeed in any place in the world. I am now attending UCI, and doing something I love. I enjoy going to school and being around various people -- this allowed me to be able to travel from one world to the next with the ability to speak and sign.
With the ideals of Deaf people in a Hearing world, they should always think they can do anything they put their hearts and minds to. To be successful in anything they dream of, is to have that positive outlook on everyone and everything in their life. I believe that I can do anything. Deaf can -- Deaf I am, and Deaf I always will be. But these two worlds I stand on the bridge between the two and in a way, I am content.
Further on in my Blogs, I will talk about the challenges and dreams that I have. I will talk about standing on that bridge between the Deaf-World and the Hearing World. I will talk about the many posiblities of living a life as a Deaf person, but with the many strengths and endeveors of being able to communicate in both ASL and speech. This is not a political blog, nor is it a blog that will shatter the barriers of the Hearing World and the Deaf-World, but rather it is a blog to connect my place in this world through the use of words. These worlds are beautiful, these worlds are a part of who I am, and these worlds are all around us. Come, take my hand and we begin the journey right on this very bridge between the two worlds --come and learn about language, culture, and about who I am: I am Deaf and I am part of two worlds that is connected through languages: ASL and English.

My First Blog

So, for my first blog I have decided to tell you a little about myself. My Name is Gilberto. I am in the credential program at UCI. I would like to be a high school English teacher which is weird since I am Deaf. If you don't know, American Sign Language (ASL) is NOT English. I am currently writing a persuasive essay arguing that ASL is in fact a language. Believe it or not, spoken languages are not the only languages. I went to the California School for the Deaf in Riverside (CSDR) through junior high and high school. It was there that I learned ASL. ASL was the bridge that connected me to the Deaf world because I am actually from a hearing family. I am the only one in my family who is Deaf and the only one who uses any sign language. Since my family does not use sign language, I rely on lip reading when I am with them. I am able to speak well because when I was young I had a lot of residual hearing. My ability to lip read has helped me be part of the hearing world while my ability to communicate in ASL has helped me be part of the Deaf-World. With these chronicles of Gilberto, I hope to share with you my perspective on living between both worlds. With that, I hope this blog is off to a good start and I will post again soon.