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Why am I going to Puerto Rico? We will be hosting the San Juan DeafNation Expo on June 13, 2009, so to me it’s a great chance to meet more Deaf people and see what Puerto Rico can offer to travelers and Expo attendees. Puerto Rico, interestingly enough, is kind of part of the United States. It’s a Commonwealth country, with the U.S. holding sovereign control over the island.  GraciasVRS, a VRS company servicing Spanish-speaking countries, sponsored my tour.  Jose and Jorge, two of my guides, met me at the San Juan airport with some beautiful and welcome Puerto Rican hospitability.  It was a trippy feeling – I had just left Cleveland’s airport with 20” plus inches of snow and began experiencing 88 degree tropical temperatures four hours later.  We were rushed to a famous TV News station, Noticentro (WAPA TV), for an interview with one of their reporters, Mardelis Jusino, to talk about DeafNation.  She was so fascinated by my experiences going to different countries all over the world, and Mardelis said that she’d love to attend the Expo in June.

About 300 Deaf people were waiting for me at the San Gabriel School for the Deaf. They were so excited to see my presentation.  Many of them were thrilled that DeafNation had decided to pick San Juan to host one of our 15 DeafNation Expo events this year.  They mostly spoke Spanish but also used American Sign Language (ASL).  It was a very fascinating sight, watching their lips as they spoke their native language.  Before I began my presentation about my international experience and how other Deaf people are doing in their lives as businesspeople and their interesting life experiences, food, cultures, etc, Angela Roth, CEO of GraciasVRS, introduced me through their device, Creative VF0340, from Florida.

The “in person” technology for VRI is brought by ASL Services: Latino, an interpreter agency in Puerto Rico whose President and CEO is also the president and CEO of GraciasVRS, Mrs. Roth.  The first one to have this technology in Puerto Rico will be Best Buy.  The store is planning to start the service very soon!  Video Remote Interpreting or VRI is a technology that allows Deaf people to attend events at publicly accommodated places where they can find accessibility through a virtual interpreter provided by ASL Services: Latino in Puerto Rico or ASL Services Inc in the mainland USA. People can call 1 321- 402- 2099 to contact Jose Bertran who is the marketing consultant for these companies.

After my presentation, I was surprised to see great support from the local Starbucks Coffee shop and Best Buy store giving away many prizes.  Kudos to them for giving their best support!  I met many Deaf people telling me about interesting stories around the island, and I’m very READY to start my journey and assignments.

About GraciasVRS:
GraciasVRS is your global community in Trilingual VRS interpreting for Spanish/ASL/English. We service and respect every nation, country and community by providing the right interpreter you need every time! Try GraciasVRS with ANY videophone by dialing graciasvrs.tv  or english.graciasvrs.tv  today!