Surreal Incident with Deaf Latino and Rep. Mendoza

What a surreal experience for the AB 2072 opponent bumped into Rep. Tony Mendoza at the Pyramid Brewery restuarant after the hearing! That was Elena Ruiz, deaf Latino clicked very well with Rep. Mendoza and chatted for awhile. Mendoza felt connected with Elena due to their similar ethnic hertiage. Politics surely make a strange bedfellow!

Here is Elena Ruiz's own words -

Elena M. Ruiz we were all gathered at pyramid brewery, and it just so happened that mendoza came in with a troupe of his own. thanks to sharing a pitcher of IPA beer with some friends, i felt bold enough to wave to him-- apparently, he recognized me from last week when i passed by him on the street wearing my yellow anti-ab 2072 shirt, shooting him a haughty look. so he came over to me, shook my hand, and we started chatting.after introducing myself as a Latina Deaf woman with parents in the field of bilingual (Spanish-English education,) I was really blunt to him. i told him i felt he was letting down us Latino Deaf people, and that he was contributing to the oppression of us. I told him that his bill reminded me of Prop 227, and he instantly said "i'd never do that, i'd never do that." i also said that i hope we all can work together to make sure that Latino Deaf children dont have to have hearing aids on their ears or stuff implanted on their skull to feel like complete human beings, that they can be ASL users and still be a total part of both the hearing Latino community and the Deaf community. He kept agreeing with everything I said. Then I went on to ask if he had had a change of heart today, and he said yes and that he really wanted to work with us. the convo was prob around 10-15 mins long, and it was photographed and videotaped. i'm sure i'm leaving some more details out, but those are definitely the big points...thank god for that IPA buzz for giving me the ganas to do that.

ASLize yours,
Robert L. Mason
RLMDEAF blog