1465? -1548: Joanot de Pau (Joan Pau Guardiola), Painter (ES)

Joanot de Pau was an active painter in the Segarra, Solsonès and several Pyrenean regions. He is remembered, above all, for being born deaf-mute. 

1520 - 1584: Pedro Ponce de León, the first teacher of the deaf (ES)

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".

His work with deaf children focused on helping them to learn how to speak language audibly. He also instructed children in writing and in simple gestures.

1526 – 1579: Juan Fernandez Navarrete, Painter (ES)

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 drawings skills became evident when he began communicating his needs by drawing them out with charcoal on paper. The young artist never allowed his disabilities to hamper his dreams or ambitions and allowed his art to become his voice.

1620: Juan Pablo Bonet, the first book on the subject of manual alphabetic signs (ES)

In 1620, Juan Pablo Bonet published the first book on the subject of manual alphabetic signs for the deaf.

Bonet was of the first teachers to devise and record in print a sign alphabet, and his system has had some influence on modern sign languages. However, he was also typical of his age in believing that signing was only a step towards an ideal of oralism rather than a valid form of communication in itself.

1746 - 1828: Francisco Goya, Painter (ES)

In the winter of 1792-93, when Goya was 46, he developed a mysterious illness that nearly killed him. He survived but lost his hearing, and for the next 35 years was “deaf as a stump.”

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And yet, only after the illness did he achieve full mastery of the face in his portraits. Only after his hearing was gone did his skill as a portraitist reach its zenith, possibly, it has been suggested, because deafness made him more aware of gesture, physical expression, and all the minute particulars of how faces and bodies reveal themselves.

1772 - 1836: Roberto Francisco Prádez, first Deaf teacher of the Deaf in Spain

Roberto Prádez was Spain's first deaf teacher of the deaf. Although he has been neglected historically, Prádez is a founding father of deaf education, a heroic figure who contributed crucially to the establishment and operation of Spain's first state-sponsored school.

1805: First School for the Deaf in Spain, Madrid (ES)

The year 1805 marked the opening in Madrid of the Royal School for Deafmutes.

Roberto Francisco Prádez was Spain's first deaf teacher of the deaf and a key figure in deaf education during the early 19th century, It was to his efforts that the Royal School for Deafmutes owed much of its success, and at times during its precarioius first three decades, its very existence.

1879 - 1963: Valentín de Zubiaurre Aguirrezábal, Painter (ES)

Valentin de Zubiaurre Aguirrezábal ( Madrid , 1879 - 1963 ), was a Spanish painter. He was born deaf, as was his brother Ramón de Zubiaurre , also a painter, three years his junior. Both were children of the musical composer Valentin de Zubiaurre Urinobarrenechea .

2007: Spain, Legal Recognition of Spanish and Catalan Sign Languages

On June 28, 2007, Spanish and Catalan Sign Languages were recognised by the Spanish Parliament to be official languages in Spain.