Jean Sorel: A Hero to Remember!

A couple of weeks ago, I received the magazine of the Esperanto Association of Canada, “Lumo”. I had the opportunity to read some interesting articles.

To be a member of an Esperanto association and to meet with  Esperantists, it means to be in contact with some people that are real polyglots and those who have done great contributions with their languages skills.  This time, LUMO has a great article where they mention a very Special and great Esperantist and a Polyglot, who passed away some months ago, but had done great contributions to Canada. I am talking about Jean Sorel. To read about his life had a great impact on me.  

Jean Sorel – was born blind in Jacmel, Haiti, in 1928, but being blind was not an obstacle to educate himself, learn, teach, live, travel, nor to perform any of his favourite activities.

But his Mother exercised a great influence over him, relevant to his desire to excel and to his initiation in the world of languages, one of his greatest passions. His Mother made him learn French, English and Spanish from his early childhood. We must not forget that in Haiti, the language spoken by the majority is Creole that today is considered a separate language from French. In Haiti, French and Creole are the official languages.  

Thanks to a friend who had connections with France, Jean could get books in Braille from that country and became the first Haitian to learn Braille.

Jean Sorel, could continue with his education in Perkins High school for blind in Boston. From there, he went to Harvard where he got a degree in Teaching.

He returned to Haiti with a guide dog, being the first Haitian to walk in the streets of its capital Port-au-Prince, with a guide dog.

Jean Sorel, dedicated his life to teach: He taught blind children, he taught English, and he taught pedagogy for teachers, who later will work with blind students. Jean also dedicated to work for emancipation of visually impaired people in Haiti. He was the cofounder of the Haitian Association for Help Blind people, where he became his General Secretary. Jean, later, had his own Radio program in Radio Haiti, something that ended up making him famous but also allowed him to spread his teachings and his work to create awareness about the situation of blind and visually impaired people in the Haitian Society. By the way, it is said that one of the favourite hobbies of Jean, was to listen to his HF Radio to listen to programs from all over the world, keep him listening to programs in English and Spanish, but it is also said that he had curiosity for radio programs in German and Italian. 

The political situation in Haiti during the dictatorship regime of Duvalier, lead him to emigrate. USA was the chosen destination, and he was accepted. But Destiny had a different country for him that would become his permanent home: Canada. The Hadley school, that provide distance education (correspondence courses) for visually impaired, and where Jean himself was a student, they needed a French and English teacher for their office in Montreal. Then, Jean arrived to Canada in 1964 and he settle in that city.

In 1965, Jean learnt Esperanto, a language with some ideals that made impact on him. Jean dedicated himself to spread this language and with time became the vice-president of the Esperanto club of Montreal. Jean also started to teach this language.  

Jean Sorel was cofounder of the Association of Blind and Visually Impaired Haitians of Québec (AAAHQ, according to its initials in French) where he was also its vice-president. Jean was also a honorary member of the Association for Integration of Multiethnic Handicapped People of Québec. This activism lead him to work hard for the emancipation of Blind and visually impaired in Canada, and to continue with his support to those Associations that do this same job in  Haiti, through sending donations, printed books in Braille, and white canes. But in Montreal, Jean had also his own weekly Radio programme in cfmb radio, during the hours dedicated to the Haitian Community.

All those things made Jean Sorel an influential person, someone who had used his linguistic skills to help blind, visually impaired and those Newcomers who arrived to Montreal, someone who has created awareness about the integration of handicapped people. But overall, he was a Great Educator.

In the web page of Radio Canada international we can read this article http://www.rcinet.ca/francais/archives/chronique/portraits/13-44_2013-03-01-jean-sorel-de-jacmel-a-montreal-un-exceptionnel-parcours-dans-le-noir/

The web page of the Association of Blind and Visually Impaired of Québec dedicated also this page http://raaq.qc.ca/sorel-jean/ a well deserved honour, but at the same time, it may be a very small step to remember the good deeds of this Polyglot Hero.