A historical approach to the development of the associative movement of sign language interpreters in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

The article presents a historical approach to the development of the associative movement of translators, Sign Language Interpreters (SLI) and deaf/blind-interpreters in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region from 1990 to 2022. The objective is to investigate the motivations that led to the creation of organisations of SLI in the last 30 years and to analyse the role played by different stakeholders in the creation of these organisations in the LAC region. The content adopts a historiographical approach for the chronological construction and a two-way analysis approach: "bottom-up" and "top-down" to understand the demands involved in the emergence of the organisations. Different techniques have been used for data collection: semi-structured interviews, surveys, document reviews, and literature with references to associative movements (Araujo, 2015; Barreto, 2015; Barreto y Souza-Junior, 2016; Nascimento, 2012; Russo, 2010; Russo y Fiss, 2018). The results show a dual direction in the emergence of the SLI associative movement in the LAC region. On one hand, from the bottom up, local demands from national Deaf organisations supported and contributed to the establishment of SLI associations and federations. On the other hand, from the top down, the supranational demands of the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI) contributed to the support of processes of development and the creation of associations and federations of SLI in the LAC region, as well as to the promotion of adopting the model of joint work between organisations of deaf people and SLI. In conclusion, the creation of WASLI in 2005 and its representation for the LAC region in 2007 were the main drivers for the emergence of national associations.