Michelle Montelongo interview
Item
Title
Michelle Montelongo interview
Description
Microsoft Word document, 19 pages
Creator
Montelongo, Michelle
DeVous, Hannah
Relation
StoryCorps Interviews
Coverage
California State University, Fresno
Date
4/16/2016
Identifier
SCMS_stcp_00005
extracted text
>> Hannah DeVous: My name is Hannah DeVous. I am 28 years old. Today is April 16th, 2016. We are in
Fresno, California at California State University at Fresno. And I know Michelle ‘cause she is a coworker
turned friend.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And my name is Michelle Montelongo. I am 46 years old. Today is April 16th,
2016. We are in the Henry Madden Library at Fresno State, Fresno State California. And I am with
Hannah DeVous, who is a colleague and good friend.
>> Hannah DeVous: All right, here we go.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Okay.
>> Hannah DeVous: So three years ago when I moved to Fresno, I started working at an interpreting
agency, and noticed a photo on the wall of a lady in a really nice black dress in the Oval Office, which I
later found out was you in the Oval Office. And then later found out that you were the first interpreter
American Sign Language interpreter to be in the Oval Office in over 50 years. So let's start there.
[Laughter] Tell me what the experience was like, what led to the moment of you getting to be the first
interpreter in the White House in 50 years?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Uh, Wow. [Laughs] Good question. I hope the answer is just -- suits the
question. That photo, that moment had a lot of significance in my life. And it really –and that's a loaded
question to ask me that, because I think it started when I was about four or five years old. When I look
at the trajectory of my life, I often wonder -- you could call it providence, you could call it fate, you can
call it serendipity. But it was at that time where my earliest memory and looking to the White House
how things connected. I must have been about four -- about four years old. And on my father's side of
the family, we took a trip to Texas because that's where he's from. And that summer, all -- I can vaguely
recall one of the popular toys on the market was this Barbie head, which rather sounds morbid. But it
was a Barbie head where you can apply makeup—
>> Hannah DeVous: Oh and do its hair.
>> Michelle Montelongo: --and do its hair.
>> Hannah DeVous: I think I had one of those.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Okay; and you could even like pull the hair so it could grow.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes, Tilly [presumed spelling] had one.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And my older sister -- I'm the youngest of four, and so my older sister, Angie,
and my cousins were playing with it. I was only four at the time, so it was something I wanted to play
with, but it wasn't yet my turn. So that whole trip I was coveting that Barbie head. [Laughs] And at one
point we were at the beach, and they were giving me all the shells they had collected. And all I could be
thinking about was, you know, "I want to play with that Barbie head." [Laughter] And towards the end of
the trip, I did play with the Barbie head, but it coincided with President Nixon resigning.
>> Hannah DeVous: Hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And --
>> Hannah DeVous: Were you watching it on TV?
>> Michelle Montelongo: We were watching it on TV. It was at my uncle's house.
>> Hannah DeVous: Uh-huh.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And all of the relatives were there, all of my father's siblings. He comes from a
very big family. And they were all there because we were visiting from California. And the family is split
politically in regards to we have the republicans, we have the democrats. And I'm this four-year-old
sitting on the floor finally getting to play with the Barbie head. And it suddenly doesn't seem as
significant, because half of my relatives are talking about the travesty this is for the American -- for
Americans. And then the other half are saying, you know, "Don't be so naive. No; he had it coming," and
so forth. And seeing this bickering and this debate going on within my family had a very -- over this man
whom I didn't even know, really affected my life and my worldview. I had -- because everyone around
me was older, I had -- I developed the notion that I too should have an opinion.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And I felt so self-conscious and so embarrassed that I didn't have an opinion. I
didn't know anything about Watergate. And I was too immature to realize, nor did many of the other
four-year-olds, you know, across America, but I thought they did. Because if everyone around me reads
the newspaper, and everyone around me knows who President Nixon is, and knows the Watergate
Scandal, how is it, it escaped me? And I became very self-conscious. And I made the decision -- never
told anyone, but I made the decision of "You know, I'll just keep quiet. I'll play with the Barbie, but I'll
listen to what they're saying so this way I could figure out and develop an opinion." It impacted my life
in a lot of ways because I realized I knew my relatives, my whole family loved one another, but it was
okay to have a different political opinion. No matter how visceral it was I knew at the end of the day,
these people loved one another. The other thing that really kind of transformed me was this man over a
thousand miles away impacted my evening that night. And so if he could have an effect, what type of
effect can my decisions have on others? And led to being slightly hyper-paranoid, if you can be slightly
hyper [laughs] about decisions I make, and becoming very methodical in my approach as much as a fouryear-old can be.
>> Hannah DeVous: I think that -- I mean, I've never heard that story before, so knowing you the way
that I know you like more on a primary--
>> Michelle Montelongo: Explains a lot?
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes; well yes. I mean, primarily like professional level like to see how you always go
above and beyond what the job title is and what to have everything at your fingertips. Some people may
say that's like, you know, anal retentive, but really [overlapping] --
>> Michelle Montelongo: In an endearing way.
>> Hannah DeVous: In a sweet way. In our profession it makes what we do better.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It was a fear of bungling. I definitely didn't want to, and I definitely didn't want
it to affect anyone's lives. And that started me interested in politics. And from that day forward, it was
never missing missing—listening to a presidential debate, never missing listening to -- watching the
presidential conventions each party's. I'd watch the Democratic Presidential Convention, I'd watch the
Republican one. I was always listening to anything political but never saying anything because, again, not
realizing the age difference that those that did have well-informed opinions were 30 years my junior—
senior.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yeah. And then when I was in -- I think I was about eight years old was a lot of
the turmoil regarding Southwest Asia, the Middle East and the Shah of Iran fleeing the country. And
one— that was very much in the news. And at one point I was sitting in the back of the family station
wagon, my parents are driving and the house across the street was for sale. And I'm listening to my
parents debate over where they think the Shah went. And one of them jokingly -- but I didn't know it
was jokingly said, "You know, for all we know, they could be the new neighbors." And sitting in the back
seat, you know, eight years old thinking, "Oh my gosh, who's this Shah fellow? And where is Iran? And I
have to know this, especially if he's going to be my neighbor? And is he good or bad?" And still in the
concrete phase of, "Is this person a good person? Is this person a bad person? Where does he reflect in
comparison to Nixon --?"
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: That I had learned about? Yeah.
>> Unidentified speaker: How old were you?
>> Michelle Montelongo: I was about four -- eight years old at the time. Yeah. And so vowing to myself -like when I was four, I vowed to myself, "I'm going to learn about Watergate. I'm going to learn about
President Nixon." When I was eight, it was vowing to myself, again, "I'm going to learn about the Middle
East, Iran, what a Shah is, and how do you spell it?"
>> Hannah DeVous: And is he really living across the house—in the house across the street?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly. And curiously enough, you know, I never told anyone though. And it
was also feeling slightly defeated because, you know, when you're four, you don't realize how much you
don't know. And that impacted me and I'm thinking, "This is something new I have to know." And so
passively listening in on the TV and so forth, and then feeling like I was, you know, once again hit
another wall when I was about eight and the, "Okay; here's something else I don't know that I need to
add to this list. It's growing." And so I thought to my -- you know, I went back to school thinking, "Okay;
I'm just not going to mention the Middle East crisis to anyone at school, because they probably have an
opinion and I won't be able to contribute to the conversation because I thought about all eight-year-olds
knew who the Shah of Iran was.
>> Hannah DeVous: No, probably not.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And again, I didn't think of, "No; my parents are older than I am. They're
adults. They read the newspaper. And so when I returned the next day to school, there was a little bit of
anxiety of, "Just make sure you don't mention this into the conversation."
>> Hannah DeVous: So when you were standing in the Oval Office interpreting, you probably -- your first
thought is interpreting because that's what interpreters do is only think about the job at hand, and all of
the knowledge we have relating to the job at hand. But what did it feel like when you left the Oval
Office? Like, did you feel --?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Surreal. I think in any high-profile assignment, in any assignment in general
there's, you know, the fear of bungling. But then it's realizing that's a luxury you can't afford to have. In
that assignment, everything was surreal from the run-up to it to afterwards. I can't really describe it, it's
-- other than surreal. I was talking last night to a supervisor, a fellow supervisor of interpreters, because
being that hyper-paranoid person of wanting to do the ethical thing, I sought ethical advice.
>> Hannah DeVous: mm-hmm, Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: You as an interpreter know we have a code of conduct and what we can
discuss, what we can't discuss. And it was, "What can I discuss about it? What can't I discuss? What can I
discuss about other assignments? What can't I?" Even though I already know the code of conduct, it's
also the idea of making sure I'm interpreting it correctly, no pun intended there. [Laughter] Making sure
I'm adhering to it. Similar to the Constitution, you know, it's written in a certain format for
interpretation. And when I left, it was just all surreal. I don't -- it didn't hit until the following week when
the photo was on the webpage. And I started receiving text messages on my phone of, "Check the White
House webpage. Check the White House webpage." And I was out of town interpreting at one at my
contracts. One of the sites where this interpreting was situated right next to a library, a public library. So
I snuck into the public library and -- it was open, I didn't like break into and I say, "Snuck in", but you
know, went in there, and I used one of the computers, and followed the directions of access the White
House webpage. No one told me why, they just -- I started -- I just received over ten text messages of,
"Check the White House webpage." And as I accessed, you know, keyed in the URL, the photo came up,
and I led out fairly loud audible gasp in the library. Instantly, you know, hand over mouth and apology,
apology to everyone around, "So sorry." And it was -- it's very much like an out-of-body experience --
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Because but then at the same time, it was going back to that little girl who was
four years old and didn't know anything about politics. And then I just thought back to the trajectory of
my interpreting career of just growing up, different things that had you told me—
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: I never would have thought. I would have -- that would have occurred even in
becoming an interpreter. I don't think when you're studying to be an interpreter, you think of what
you'll be interpreting in respect to those type of events. Often, you're thinking educational and medical
because those are so predominant in our field. And you don't realize the variety within it, even if it's,
you know, like a Tupperware -- you don't think you'll be interpreting a Tupperware party. You don't
think you'll be interpreting someone's first day of work.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes. Or the first time you get to see that baby on the heart monitor.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yeah.
>> Hannah DeVous: You don't think about that until it happens.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yeah.
>> Hannah DeVous: And those moments are -- I mean, I think the White House and the Oval Office is a
grander scale, but at the same time like interpreting for a mom hearing her baby, hearing by feeling the
monitor her baby's heartbeat for the first time is also surreal.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It's -- you know, it was a great experience, but it doesn't define who I am.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And it's not why I entered the profession. And every time I'm interpreting for a
deaf individual, I truly am humbled because the amount of trust that's placed.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And I think that's also why I mentor.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: To help the next generation, you know.
>> Hannah DeVous: It's funny, on my way here I was thinking about the very first job I had at Fresno
State University, where we are now, is, uh, I was interpreting an evening class. I had just been hired. I
had just moved to the city. And the coordinator was like, "I'm going to put you in a class with an
interpreter named Michelle." And so I was like, "Who’s this Michelle lady? I don't know anybody in town
– so I had like one friend --
>> Michelle Montelongo: It's the one in the photo. [Laughs]
>> Hannah DeVous: I had one friend -- I didn't know at the time. I had one friend who was working with
me. And I was like, "Do you know Michelle?" And she was like, "Um, Yes." And I was like, "Should I be
really scared? And she was like, "No, she's great.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Aw.
>> Hannah DeVous: She's just really, really professional." So I remember like dressing up super above
and beyond what I would have. And knowing you now I'm like, "Yeah. I made a really great impression.
And I never wore like casual clothes the entire semester because I was terrified. I wanted to impress you
so much because I knew you were like awesome.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Aw.
>> Hannah DeVous: But then and the same time, like the coordinator was like, "No; she really loves
young interpreters, and like she mentors a lot. And she does a lot of supervision."
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes.
>> Hannah DeVous: And like just knowing that made my job easier because from like the second week
we were just --
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes.
>> Hannah DeVous: Conversing about stuff. So your love of mentoring goes far and beyond just what
you do for, you know, other universities and stuff, which is awesome.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Thank you. Thank you.
>> Hannah DeVous: Thanks for that. Thanks for being awesome.
>> Michelle Montelongo: I had no -- I think there's a part of me that's always --I don't know, taken
aback, or find it very amusing in regards to the, "You know, she's so professional the way she dresses."
Because if people see me at home, it's sweats, hair up in a clip, [laughs] six socks on because I'm always
cold. But I think how I dress is also just --Out of comfort. It sounds odd, but out of comfort, and out of
ease of the day in going to 12 years of private school you're always wearing a uniform. And it's kind of
ironic because we've discussed it, my senior -- the only rebellious thing I did growing up was I didn't
wear the uniform my senior year in high school. And I don't know if I should be embarrassed at the fact
that I really never got caught. [Laughs] In fact, I got complimented by some of the nuns. You know, "Nice
dress, sweetie." It was never -- and I think I did that primarily out of the oblique thinking, "Okay, I'm a
teenager; I need to rebel in some way. How do I do it?" And not really being enthusiastic about
rebellion, but figuring out it's a rite -- thinking, "It's a rite of passage all teenagers do.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right, you have to do something.
>> Michelle Montelongo: What should mine be? Hey. Let's do it, the uniform."
>> Hannah DeVous: Let me wear some A-line dresses, it's a school.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly; they were A-line skirts. And I always tease my mother, though,
because I blame her for it. My freshman year she didn't like how uniform skirts fit. So she actually took
me a seamstress so that they could have a more flattering fit. And she had them made into A-line style
so when I would sit, they wouldn't bunch up. And as the years progressed in high school, it was, "Well, if
I could make this adjustment to make it look better, maybe I can make this adjustment." So by the time
it was senior year, I had jettisoned the whole uniform completely, but gradually within the four years in
high school. And then I went to college. And it wasn't until -- well when I was in college just the idea of,
"Oh my gosh, what do I wear?"
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes. It's kind of overwhelming when you grow up—when you wear a uniform.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes. I mean --
>> Hannah DeVous: And you have all of these choices at your fingertips, and you don't know what to
wear.
>> Michelle Montelongo: You know, we had formal dress day. And I found it easy on the weekends in
high school because they're weekends. But on formal dress day, though, it was, you're going to chapel.
So there were still rules within that of what you could wear. And in going to college it was, you know,
"What do I do? How do I dress," because I went to -- it was my first experience attending a public entity.
And I didn't fully understand what that meant until I was in line to buy books. Because when I was
growing up, private school you have to pay for tuition, you have to pay for your books, you have to pay
for your uniform when you do decide to wear it. And --
>> Hannah DeVous: And then your mom has to pay for alterations.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly. I don't know if my father knows about that. And my mom would make
it a practice to have me ask my father for the tuition check. And it was an interesting exchange, and
nonverbal exchange. And he knew I was about to ask for that tuition check when he'd seen me walking
towards him. And the expression that would come over his face wasn't a pleasing one. But at the same
time, it wasn't one of anger, either. It was just -- I can't even describe it. But I'd walk up to him, and you
know, "Papa, I need the check for school." He'd write me the check, he'd hand it over, grumble a few
things. And I'd stand there and say, "Well, I also need to buy books," which he knew because we would
go through this --
>> Hannah DeVous: Every year.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Every year. [Sighs] He'd have a deep sigh. He'd give me some money and he'd
look at me and say, "Make sure you buy used books." [Laughter] And --
>> Hannah DeVous: So did you buy used books your first year of college?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Well, yeah, I did. And luckily -- but this time when I started going to college it
was different. I walked up to him to ask him for the tuition check. He asked me for how much. I told him.
And when I told him, I saw what had at best could be described as a look of relief in his eyes. And he led
out a sigh, wrote the check, and without any prompting, gave me money for books without -- smiled and
said, "Do you need money for books?" Gave me the money, didn't even say, "Buy used books." He was
just almost happy. And I had never seen that expression in relation to money with my father. And when I
was in line to purchase books, I suddenly realized this is the difference of a public and private education.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It was because it cost less to go to a public school, to college than it costs to
attend my high school, than it did to attend my grade school. And upon realizing that then the daunting
sensation of, "So about 30% of this is being paid for by taxpayers."
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And it went back to being that five-year-old of, "So other people are affecting
my life and I'm affecting other people's monetary status." And realizing, "Okay; once I get into this
workforce thing and figure out what I want to do for a living, I have to give back to the university in
some way." And that's what started -- that was one of the things that started me in mentoring, was
giving back to the taxpayers.
>> Hannah DeVous: And those that come after you.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes.
>> Hannah DeVous: Those little interpreters that come after you.
>> Michelle Montelongo: [Laughs] They're never little.
>> Hannah DeVous: They are not; no. Let's talk about—let’s talk about the ADA, American Disabilities
Act.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes.
>> Hannah DeVous: That was passed in 1990, right around the time you started interpreting.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Well, I was still taking classes.
>> Hannah DeVous: When you were still taking classes; yeah. So do you notice a change? Did that
suddenly validate your profession more? The profession.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It --I recall thinking -- because I know I was taking courses at the time. And at
the same time I was also volunteering at a deaf agency.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And when it passed, getting clarification because it's something -- the
employment aspect of it is similar to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And so figuring out those things, But I think initially there was the general
assumption of, "Okay; so now everyone will be equal. Now everyone will see deaf, as you know, as
equals, and it won't -- there won't be as many barriers." Without thinking of, "Okay; doesn't mean the
mindset's there."
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And living in the Central Valley, it was a little bit -- I can't say different because
I only had -- up until then I'd only lived in the Central Valley. So I don't know what it was like in
comparison to other cities and other states. I just recall the first time I started interpreting with --
outside of the interpreting -- and outside of the confines of a deaf agency when I was on my own going
to different universities and so forth, being shocked back then -- you know, back in my day, that there
wasn't the regulations in regards to who can interpret.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: So I didn't have a performance exam. It was, "Oh, you interpret?" And when I
was hired by a place, realizing a lot of the other interpreters were hired only because they said they had
taken a couple of sign language classes. And I think that's what started the perceived ultra-professional.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And I always say -- because it's always a matter of perspective, it's all relative
to the next person, you know, when you have people that are just taking sign language courses, and
you're placing them in roles of interpreter.
>> Hannah DeVous: Not the same.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It's not the same as when you have someone who's studying and learning
trying to become an interpreter and is talking to other interpreters about it, and approaches it in a
professional manner. In comparison, yes, it does look ultra-professional. I think it was, you know, you
had to deal sometimes with the mindset of -- it -- but it was a little bit of more of a dilemma in the
respect that you're an interpreter. So I'm an interpreter. I have the code of conduct. And at times,
interpreting some things that are pretty grizzly, in regards to people not seeing deaf equally as you see
deaf.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And not being able to do anything about it. And you don't want it to taint your
view of humanity. And you want to keep that positive perspective on it. And I think it's what helped me
become a good independent contractor when I have my contracts—when I have contracts, because I
can approach these issues at the negotiating table, of pre-consulting before I interpret to dispel any
misnomers.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: But it makes -- I think also because I studied a lot of history, it was easy for me
to see deaf as yet another culture.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Another group of people. And so it's difficult for me to see people's
perspective of it as a pathologist, especially in the '90s. And so I saw -- when I would see that, I would
see also how it would parallel against other cultures being oppressed, other cultures experiencing
similar things.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Better now, though.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah; somewhat. It's changed a lot I think.
>> Michelle Montelongo: I think so. And it's still changing. And I always say -- I think -- it's funny because
we have the moratorium --
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: On the NIC. And everyone -- many, not everyone, many people were up –
>> Unidentified speaker: [Inaudible]
>> Michelle Montelongo: National Interpreting Certification, that was -- there was a moratorium that
IRD, Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, had implemented for an indefinite period. And it caused quite
a stir with many interpreters. And yet I didn't see it that way. And I think because -- I come from -- I've
always viewed it as just one of many professions.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: I've always had a view of it as a profession. I've always had a view of it as in
comparison to other businesses as well. I just saw it as, "Well, it was bound to happen in the respect
that we're still new. When you look at the legal profession, when you look at the medical profession,
you're looking at -- the teaching profession, hundreds of years of a profession that has evolved into what
it is now. You know, it's no longer you go for medical necessities in a barber shop.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And nor has it been that way for quite a while, but years ago, that was the
case. Years ago, ailments were connected to evil spirits.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And it's not the case. And as an interpreting profession, we've only been
around since -- professionally on paper since the '60s.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes.
>> Michelle Montelongo: So in essence, we're still teenagers. We're still figuring out our identity. We're
still molding to who we are. The interpreters we are now, the roles that we have now, may very well
possibly change 20 years from now. They're going to differ especially in conjunction with the
advancements of technology.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And so –
>> Hannah DeVous: So let's talk about your family.
>> Michelle Montelongo: My family?
>> Hannah DeVous: Let's talk about your mom and your dad. And tell me the story of your mom telling
you to pack a specific type of clothing when you interpret, overnight conferences.
>> Michelle Montelongo: [Laughs] She always makes -- she's very concerned that I look tidy. And so my
favorite story to tell is one time when I was going back East to interpret a -- it started with this and then
thereafter spilled over. But I was going back East to interpret. And she and I were talking on the phone
and I was telling her, "You know, I have to, you know, throw in a bunch of dark things -- clothes."
Because as interpreters, we're always in dark clothes—
>> Hanna DeVous: Solid. Solid color.
>> Michelle Montelongo: --always ready—always ready for a funeral, always in black. And she asked me,
"Well, Michelle, are you going to pack a cocktail dress, like a little evening dress?" And I said, "No, I'm
interpreting." And her response was, "Well, you never know what can happen. You never know what
can happen." I don't know how she thinks a cocktail party would suddenly evolve but --
>> Hannah DeVous: You never know.
>> Michelle Montelongo: You never know; yeah.
>> Hannah DeVous: She’s always prepared, that one.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And so I've always been prepared --
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: When I pack. But my parents I think have -- I know have had a significant
impact on my life in how I handle interpreting business practices. I learned quite a bit from my father
who had his own business. And so --
>> Hannah DeVous: And he did, what did he do again?
>> Michelle Montelongo: He was a distributor of Mexican food products, and --
>> Hannah DeVous: In the Central Valley?
>> Michelle Montelongo: In the Central Valley from -- and very hard-working, you know, in order to get
there. He came from humble beginnings. And so I recall hearing this story of him working multiple jobs --
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes.
>> Michelle Montelongo: In order to accomplish that. Growing up I'd see him negotiate with other
businesses. And that really helped me in the respect of negotiating with contracts, showing your
gratitude. With my mom, I would say my love of literature, especially poetry. My granny, her mother,
loved poetry and could listen to a song or a poem and one time and be able to recount it. Had a keen
memory. Yes, yes. And since she spoke Spanish, she would gather my mom and her siblings and recite
poetry to them and do some extemporaneously. And my mom went to private school as well. In fact, I
attended the same high school that my mom did, and my aunts and uncles on my maternal side of the
family. And she recalls –She'd always recount to me stories of having to memorize and recite the
Gettysburg Address to Christina Rossetti poems, to Shakespeare, and what the nuns would have her do.
And when you grow up with that, you grow up for a love of it. And it really -- it influenced me, her love
of Shakespeare. I think my brother and my sister and I will have, you know, the complete works of
Shakespeare. And we each have our own favorite Shakespeare plays. [Laughs] And it transferred into
even how I even mentor, always making sure there's a unit in there of poetry, of literature, and realizing
literature is strongly-connected with our fluency of the English language.
>> Hannah DeVous: Absolutely, yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Because of the play on words.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And yeah.
>> Hannah DeVous: And you never know when that's going to pop up.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Definitely. You know, and I'll have a student in front of me who will say, you
know, "Oh, I'll never interpret Shakespeare. I'll never -- you know, I don't have to worry about that." And
I often tell them, "Well, do you want to interpret K through 12 because California State Standard,
freshman year "Romeo and Juliet". But you also don't -- you know, the play on words doesn't cease at -with K through 12.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It can be at, you know, the OSHA video, you will -- things that you never expect
to visit you'll be interpreting. First --
>> Hannah DeVous: Or that professor who talks in idioms for the entire --
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly.
>> Hannah DeVous: Fifty minutes of their class.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly.
>> Hannah DeVous: Which is, you know, most interpreters cringe at those idioms, those play on words,
cause they are just a—If you don't have a vast understanding of the English language then you have no
idea what's being said.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Well, even in something -- you know, if you're looking at your first day of work,
I have to watch the—series of videos. No matter where you work, there's that -- you know, different
types of videos you have to do for orientation. And some of them they start off with a song. And it's,
"Okay; so now I have to interpret a song I never --" you know. And it's trying to relay that to the
interpreting student that out there you have to learn so much more than what you think. Things aren't
as they seem.
>> Hannah DeVous: So if you could tell that four-year-old little girl in that living room of your uncle's
house one amazing thing that would happen in her life, what would -- would you tell her --
>> Michelle Montelongo: What would I --
>> Hannah DeVous: Would you tell her to change anything? Would you tell her to just keep doing what
she did?
>> Michelle Montelongo: I would say, "Don't worry about feeling like an anomaly—It's going to work
out." Thank you for nominating me, Hannah.
>> Hannah DeVous: [Laughs] You're welcome.
>> Unidentified speaker: Can I ask you a couple of questions before you --
>> Michelle Montelongo: Sure.
>> Unidentified speaker: I just wanted to ask. Why did you choose to go into interpreting? And what do
you love about it?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Okay. Why did I choose to go into interpreting? Initially, you know, I had never
thought about interpreting one bit. And I needed a foreign language to take and I found out through the
community college, it was four units as opposed to if I took it at the university, it was three. So initially,
there were opportunistic reasons to take it. And it was to gain more college credit. When I started taking
-- I had a phenomenal ASL 1 instructor. She didn't teach us sign the first week of school. We just learned
non-manual markers. And non-manual markers are the facial linguistic markers that play into the syntax
of the language. But when you're taking ASL 1, you don't know that. You're just wondering why are you
making these mouth movements? Why are you making these eye squints? So she was, as I said, very
phenomenal. Susie Call [phonetic] was her name. And she no longer lives in Fresno. But she also made
us videotape ourselves weekly. So I got used to seeing myself bungle. I got used to not taking myself so
seriously in that context knowing, "I'm an ASL 1 student, I'm going to make mistakes." Thoroughly
enjoyed it. And at one point, we had an interpreter. It's really odd because I can't recall who that
interpreter was. It wasn't any of the usual suspects of our valley. But it was someone who came in and
they were telling us what it was like to be a sign language interpreter. And at that time the, you know,
paradigm was, "It's as if you're not even there, you're just facilitating the information." Well, for
someone who is painfully shy, I thought, you know, "This is great. Sign me up. And so I decided I'm going
to be an interpreter. And I started taking all the sign language classes that were offered. And at that
time, there was no interpreter training program in the valley. But they had started a pilot one through
Global Educational System. And about a year and a half into that, I realized that phrase that's like you're
not even there. That was a septifragal ploy to get more people involved in the interpreting field.
>> Hannah DeVous: Everyone sees the interpreter.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Everyone sees the interpreter. Everyone notices and makes a comment about
the interpreter. And so it was a matter of do I switch and all of this year and a half plus goes to waste
and just had been done in vain, or do I jettison the shyness? And my thought process was, "Well you
know, by the time I'm 25 or 30, I've always wanted to overcome it. I'll have to overcome it someway, so
stick to it." And then I love about -- you know, I love the profession. If I were told I couldn't be an
interpreter anymore –I would be devastated. But I still would have a sense of self, because it doesn't
define me. My assignments don't define me. And I think that's one of the other reasons I mentor, is to
help students realize as much, "As you love it, if you let it define you, you're going to be up against a
wall." I love it in the respect of I love interacting with different cultures. I love the linguistic process of it
in the mental stimulation. I love and I'm always humbled by the fact when a deaf individual requests me
or when I'm requested by someone to interpret. It's very humbling because there's a sense of trust. And
to be an interpreter is --Have you ever heard -- did you ever hear the storywriter named Laurie Colwin?
She wrote a lot for The New Yorker in the 1980s and '90s. She has since passed. Nothing in relation to
interpreting; but the title of one of her books was called, "Lone Pilgrim", a collection of short stories. But
I've always coincided that phrase "lone pilgrim" with what it's like to be an interpreter, because you
have to fit in and blend in to every situation but still maintain your anomaly, still be able to let the
communication there. And going back to what the woman said, the interpreter said, "When it really
works when everyone knows what the role of the interpreter is, it's like you're not even there." And it's
really great, not in the sense of you lose yourself, but in the sense of everyone's focused on who they
should be.
>> Hannah DeVous: Hmm.
>> Unidentified speaker: Thank you.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Thank you.
>> Hannah DeVous: Thank you.
Fresno, California at California State University at Fresno. And I know Michelle ‘cause she is a coworker
turned friend.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And my name is Michelle Montelongo. I am 46 years old. Today is April 16th,
2016. We are in the Henry Madden Library at Fresno State, Fresno State California. And I am with
Hannah DeVous, who is a colleague and good friend.
>> Hannah DeVous: All right, here we go.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Okay.
>> Hannah DeVous: So three years ago when I moved to Fresno, I started working at an interpreting
agency, and noticed a photo on the wall of a lady in a really nice black dress in the Oval Office, which I
later found out was you in the Oval Office. And then later found out that you were the first interpreter
American Sign Language interpreter to be in the Oval Office in over 50 years. So let's start there.
[Laughter] Tell me what the experience was like, what led to the moment of you getting to be the first
interpreter in the White House in 50 years?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Uh, Wow. [Laughs] Good question. I hope the answer is just -- suits the
question. That photo, that moment had a lot of significance in my life. And it really –and that's a loaded
question to ask me that, because I think it started when I was about four or five years old. When I look
at the trajectory of my life, I often wonder -- you could call it providence, you could call it fate, you can
call it serendipity. But it was at that time where my earliest memory and looking to the White House
how things connected. I must have been about four -- about four years old. And on my father's side of
the family, we took a trip to Texas because that's where he's from. And that summer, all -- I can vaguely
recall one of the popular toys on the market was this Barbie head, which rather sounds morbid. But it
was a Barbie head where you can apply makeup—
>> Hannah DeVous: Oh and do its hair.
>> Michelle Montelongo: --and do its hair.
>> Hannah DeVous: I think I had one of those.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Okay; and you could even like pull the hair so it could grow.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes, Tilly [presumed spelling] had one.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And my older sister -- I'm the youngest of four, and so my older sister, Angie,
and my cousins were playing with it. I was only four at the time, so it was something I wanted to play
with, but it wasn't yet my turn. So that whole trip I was coveting that Barbie head. [Laughs] And at one
point we were at the beach, and they were giving me all the shells they had collected. And all I could be
thinking about was, you know, "I want to play with that Barbie head." [Laughter] And towards the end of
the trip, I did play with the Barbie head, but it coincided with President Nixon resigning.
>> Hannah DeVous: Hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And --
>> Hannah DeVous: Were you watching it on TV?
>> Michelle Montelongo: We were watching it on TV. It was at my uncle's house.
>> Hannah DeVous: Uh-huh.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And all of the relatives were there, all of my father's siblings. He comes from a
very big family. And they were all there because we were visiting from California. And the family is split
politically in regards to we have the republicans, we have the democrats. And I'm this four-year-old
sitting on the floor finally getting to play with the Barbie head. And it suddenly doesn't seem as
significant, because half of my relatives are talking about the travesty this is for the American -- for
Americans. And then the other half are saying, you know, "Don't be so naive. No; he had it coming," and
so forth. And seeing this bickering and this debate going on within my family had a very -- over this man
whom I didn't even know, really affected my life and my worldview. I had -- because everyone around
me was older, I had -- I developed the notion that I too should have an opinion.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And I felt so self-conscious and so embarrassed that I didn't have an opinion. I
didn't know anything about Watergate. And I was too immature to realize, nor did many of the other
four-year-olds, you know, across America, but I thought they did. Because if everyone around me reads
the newspaper, and everyone around me knows who President Nixon is, and knows the Watergate
Scandal, how is it, it escaped me? And I became very self-conscious. And I made the decision -- never
told anyone, but I made the decision of "You know, I'll just keep quiet. I'll play with the Barbie, but I'll
listen to what they're saying so this way I could figure out and develop an opinion." It impacted my life
in a lot of ways because I realized I knew my relatives, my whole family loved one another, but it was
okay to have a different political opinion. No matter how visceral it was I knew at the end of the day,
these people loved one another. The other thing that really kind of transformed me was this man over a
thousand miles away impacted my evening that night. And so if he could have an effect, what type of
effect can my decisions have on others? And led to being slightly hyper-paranoid, if you can be slightly
hyper [laughs] about decisions I make, and becoming very methodical in my approach as much as a fouryear-old can be.
>> Hannah DeVous: I think that -- I mean, I've never heard that story before, so knowing you the way
that I know you like more on a primary--
>> Michelle Montelongo: Explains a lot?
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes; well yes. I mean, primarily like professional level like to see how you always go
above and beyond what the job title is and what to have everything at your fingertips. Some people may
say that's like, you know, anal retentive, but really [overlapping] --
>> Michelle Montelongo: In an endearing way.
>> Hannah DeVous: In a sweet way. In our profession it makes what we do better.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It was a fear of bungling. I definitely didn't want to, and I definitely didn't want
it to affect anyone's lives. And that started me interested in politics. And from that day forward, it was
never missing missing—listening to a presidential debate, never missing listening to -- watching the
presidential conventions each party's. I'd watch the Democratic Presidential Convention, I'd watch the
Republican one. I was always listening to anything political but never saying anything because, again, not
realizing the age difference that those that did have well-informed opinions were 30 years my junior—
senior.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yeah. And then when I was in -- I think I was about eight years old was a lot of
the turmoil regarding Southwest Asia, the Middle East and the Shah of Iran fleeing the country. And
one— that was very much in the news. And at one point I was sitting in the back of the family station
wagon, my parents are driving and the house across the street was for sale. And I'm listening to my
parents debate over where they think the Shah went. And one of them jokingly -- but I didn't know it
was jokingly said, "You know, for all we know, they could be the new neighbors." And sitting in the back
seat, you know, eight years old thinking, "Oh my gosh, who's this Shah fellow? And where is Iran? And I
have to know this, especially if he's going to be my neighbor? And is he good or bad?" And still in the
concrete phase of, "Is this person a good person? Is this person a bad person? Where does he reflect in
comparison to Nixon --?"
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: That I had learned about? Yeah.
>> Unidentified speaker: How old were you?
>> Michelle Montelongo: I was about four -- eight years old at the time. Yeah. And so vowing to myself -like when I was four, I vowed to myself, "I'm going to learn about Watergate. I'm going to learn about
President Nixon." When I was eight, it was vowing to myself, again, "I'm going to learn about the Middle
East, Iran, what a Shah is, and how do you spell it?"
>> Hannah DeVous: And is he really living across the house—in the house across the street?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly. And curiously enough, you know, I never told anyone though. And it
was also feeling slightly defeated because, you know, when you're four, you don't realize how much you
don't know. And that impacted me and I'm thinking, "This is something new I have to know." And so
passively listening in on the TV and so forth, and then feeling like I was, you know, once again hit
another wall when I was about eight and the, "Okay; here's something else I don't know that I need to
add to this list. It's growing." And so I thought to my -- you know, I went back to school thinking, "Okay;
I'm just not going to mention the Middle East crisis to anyone at school, because they probably have an
opinion and I won't be able to contribute to the conversation because I thought about all eight-year-olds
knew who the Shah of Iran was.
>> Hannah DeVous: No, probably not.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And again, I didn't think of, "No; my parents are older than I am. They're
adults. They read the newspaper. And so when I returned the next day to school, there was a little bit of
anxiety of, "Just make sure you don't mention this into the conversation."
>> Hannah DeVous: So when you were standing in the Oval Office interpreting, you probably -- your first
thought is interpreting because that's what interpreters do is only think about the job at hand, and all of
the knowledge we have relating to the job at hand. But what did it feel like when you left the Oval
Office? Like, did you feel --?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Surreal. I think in any high-profile assignment, in any assignment in general
there's, you know, the fear of bungling. But then it's realizing that's a luxury you can't afford to have. In
that assignment, everything was surreal from the run-up to it to afterwards. I can't really describe it, it's
-- other than surreal. I was talking last night to a supervisor, a fellow supervisor of interpreters, because
being that hyper-paranoid person of wanting to do the ethical thing, I sought ethical advice.
>> Hannah DeVous: mm-hmm, Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: You as an interpreter know we have a code of conduct and what we can
discuss, what we can't discuss. And it was, "What can I discuss about it? What can't I discuss? What can I
discuss about other assignments? What can't I?" Even though I already know the code of conduct, it's
also the idea of making sure I'm interpreting it correctly, no pun intended there. [Laughter] Making sure
I'm adhering to it. Similar to the Constitution, you know, it's written in a certain format for
interpretation. And when I left, it was just all surreal. I don't -- it didn't hit until the following week when
the photo was on the webpage. And I started receiving text messages on my phone of, "Check the White
House webpage. Check the White House webpage." And I was out of town interpreting at one at my
contracts. One of the sites where this interpreting was situated right next to a library, a public library. So
I snuck into the public library and -- it was open, I didn't like break into and I say, "Snuck in", but you
know, went in there, and I used one of the computers, and followed the directions of access the White
House webpage. No one told me why, they just -- I started -- I just received over ten text messages of,
"Check the White House webpage." And as I accessed, you know, keyed in the URL, the photo came up,
and I led out fairly loud audible gasp in the library. Instantly, you know, hand over mouth and apology,
apology to everyone around, "So sorry." And it was -- it's very much like an out-of-body experience --
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Because but then at the same time, it was going back to that little girl who was
four years old and didn't know anything about politics. And then I just thought back to the trajectory of
my interpreting career of just growing up, different things that had you told me—
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: I never would have thought. I would have -- that would have occurred even in
becoming an interpreter. I don't think when you're studying to be an interpreter, you think of what
you'll be interpreting in respect to those type of events. Often, you're thinking educational and medical
because those are so predominant in our field. And you don't realize the variety within it, even if it's,
you know, like a Tupperware -- you don't think you'll be interpreting a Tupperware party. You don't
think you'll be interpreting someone's first day of work.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes. Or the first time you get to see that baby on the heart monitor.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yeah.
>> Hannah DeVous: You don't think about that until it happens.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yeah.
>> Hannah DeVous: And those moments are -- I mean, I think the White House and the Oval Office is a
grander scale, but at the same time like interpreting for a mom hearing her baby, hearing by feeling the
monitor her baby's heartbeat for the first time is also surreal.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It's -- you know, it was a great experience, but it doesn't define who I am.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And it's not why I entered the profession. And every time I'm interpreting for a
deaf individual, I truly am humbled because the amount of trust that's placed.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And I think that's also why I mentor.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: To help the next generation, you know.
>> Hannah DeVous: It's funny, on my way here I was thinking about the very first job I had at Fresno
State University, where we are now, is, uh, I was interpreting an evening class. I had just been hired. I
had just moved to the city. And the coordinator was like, "I'm going to put you in a class with an
interpreter named Michelle." And so I was like, "Who’s this Michelle lady? I don't know anybody in town
– so I had like one friend --
>> Michelle Montelongo: It's the one in the photo. [Laughs]
>> Hannah DeVous: I had one friend -- I didn't know at the time. I had one friend who was working with
me. And I was like, "Do you know Michelle?" And she was like, "Um, Yes." And I was like, "Should I be
really scared? And she was like, "No, she's great.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Aw.
>> Hannah DeVous: She's just really, really professional." So I remember like dressing up super above
and beyond what I would have. And knowing you now I'm like, "Yeah. I made a really great impression.
And I never wore like casual clothes the entire semester because I was terrified. I wanted to impress you
so much because I knew you were like awesome.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Aw.
>> Hannah DeVous: But then and the same time, like the coordinator was like, "No; she really loves
young interpreters, and like she mentors a lot. And she does a lot of supervision."
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes.
>> Hannah DeVous: And like just knowing that made my job easier because from like the second week
we were just --
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes.
>> Hannah DeVous: Conversing about stuff. So your love of mentoring goes far and beyond just what
you do for, you know, other universities and stuff, which is awesome.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Thank you. Thank you.
>> Hannah DeVous: Thanks for that. Thanks for being awesome.
>> Michelle Montelongo: I had no -- I think there's a part of me that's always --I don't know, taken
aback, or find it very amusing in regards to the, "You know, she's so professional the way she dresses."
Because if people see me at home, it's sweats, hair up in a clip, [laughs] six socks on because I'm always
cold. But I think how I dress is also just --Out of comfort. It sounds odd, but out of comfort, and out of
ease of the day in going to 12 years of private school you're always wearing a uniform. And it's kind of
ironic because we've discussed it, my senior -- the only rebellious thing I did growing up was I didn't
wear the uniform my senior year in high school. And I don't know if I should be embarrassed at the fact
that I really never got caught. [Laughs] In fact, I got complimented by some of the nuns. You know, "Nice
dress, sweetie." It was never -- and I think I did that primarily out of the oblique thinking, "Okay, I'm a
teenager; I need to rebel in some way. How do I do it?" And not really being enthusiastic about
rebellion, but figuring out it's a rite -- thinking, "It's a rite of passage all teenagers do.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right, you have to do something.
>> Michelle Montelongo: What should mine be? Hey. Let's do it, the uniform."
>> Hannah DeVous: Let me wear some A-line dresses, it's a school.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly; they were A-line skirts. And I always tease my mother, though,
because I blame her for it. My freshman year she didn't like how uniform skirts fit. So she actually took
me a seamstress so that they could have a more flattering fit. And she had them made into A-line style
so when I would sit, they wouldn't bunch up. And as the years progressed in high school, it was, "Well, if
I could make this adjustment to make it look better, maybe I can make this adjustment." So by the time
it was senior year, I had jettisoned the whole uniform completely, but gradually within the four years in
high school. And then I went to college. And it wasn't until -- well when I was in college just the idea of,
"Oh my gosh, what do I wear?"
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes. It's kind of overwhelming when you grow up—when you wear a uniform.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes. I mean --
>> Hannah DeVous: And you have all of these choices at your fingertips, and you don't know what to
wear.
>> Michelle Montelongo: You know, we had formal dress day. And I found it easy on the weekends in
high school because they're weekends. But on formal dress day, though, it was, you're going to chapel.
So there were still rules within that of what you could wear. And in going to college it was, you know,
"What do I do? How do I dress," because I went to -- it was my first experience attending a public entity.
And I didn't fully understand what that meant until I was in line to buy books. Because when I was
growing up, private school you have to pay for tuition, you have to pay for your books, you have to pay
for your uniform when you do decide to wear it. And --
>> Hannah DeVous: And then your mom has to pay for alterations.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly. I don't know if my father knows about that. And my mom would make
it a practice to have me ask my father for the tuition check. And it was an interesting exchange, and
nonverbal exchange. And he knew I was about to ask for that tuition check when he'd seen me walking
towards him. And the expression that would come over his face wasn't a pleasing one. But at the same
time, it wasn't one of anger, either. It was just -- I can't even describe it. But I'd walk up to him, and you
know, "Papa, I need the check for school." He'd write me the check, he'd hand it over, grumble a few
things. And I'd stand there and say, "Well, I also need to buy books," which he knew because we would
go through this --
>> Hannah DeVous: Every year.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Every year. [Sighs] He'd have a deep sigh. He'd give me some money and he'd
look at me and say, "Make sure you buy used books." [Laughter] And --
>> Hannah DeVous: So did you buy used books your first year of college?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Well, yeah, I did. And luckily -- but this time when I started going to college it
was different. I walked up to him to ask him for the tuition check. He asked me for how much. I told him.
And when I told him, I saw what had at best could be described as a look of relief in his eyes. And he led
out a sigh, wrote the check, and without any prompting, gave me money for books without -- smiled and
said, "Do you need money for books?" Gave me the money, didn't even say, "Buy used books." He was
just almost happy. And I had never seen that expression in relation to money with my father. And when I
was in line to purchase books, I suddenly realized this is the difference of a public and private education.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It was because it cost less to go to a public school, to college than it costs to
attend my high school, than it did to attend my grade school. And upon realizing that then the daunting
sensation of, "So about 30% of this is being paid for by taxpayers."
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And it went back to being that five-year-old of, "So other people are affecting
my life and I'm affecting other people's monetary status." And realizing, "Okay; once I get into this
workforce thing and figure out what I want to do for a living, I have to give back to the university in
some way." And that's what started -- that was one of the things that started me in mentoring, was
giving back to the taxpayers.
>> Hannah DeVous: And those that come after you.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes.
>> Hannah DeVous: Those little interpreters that come after you.
>> Michelle Montelongo: [Laughs] They're never little.
>> Hannah DeVous: They are not; no. Let's talk about—let’s talk about the ADA, American Disabilities
Act.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes.
>> Hannah DeVous: That was passed in 1990, right around the time you started interpreting.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Well, I was still taking classes.
>> Hannah DeVous: When you were still taking classes; yeah. So do you notice a change? Did that
suddenly validate your profession more? The profession.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It --I recall thinking -- because I know I was taking courses at the time. And at
the same time I was also volunteering at a deaf agency.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And when it passed, getting clarification because it's something -- the
employment aspect of it is similar to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And so figuring out those things, But I think initially there was the general
assumption of, "Okay; so now everyone will be equal. Now everyone will see deaf, as you know, as
equals, and it won't -- there won't be as many barriers." Without thinking of, "Okay; doesn't mean the
mindset's there."
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And living in the Central Valley, it was a little bit -- I can't say different because
I only had -- up until then I'd only lived in the Central Valley. So I don't know what it was like in
comparison to other cities and other states. I just recall the first time I started interpreting with --
outside of the interpreting -- and outside of the confines of a deaf agency when I was on my own going
to different universities and so forth, being shocked back then -- you know, back in my day, that there
wasn't the regulations in regards to who can interpret.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: So I didn't have a performance exam. It was, "Oh, you interpret?" And when I
was hired by a place, realizing a lot of the other interpreters were hired only because they said they had
taken a couple of sign language classes. And I think that's what started the perceived ultra-professional.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And I always say -- because it's always a matter of perspective, it's all relative
to the next person, you know, when you have people that are just taking sign language courses, and
you're placing them in roles of interpreter.
>> Hannah DeVous: Not the same.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It's not the same as when you have someone who's studying and learning
trying to become an interpreter and is talking to other interpreters about it, and approaches it in a
professional manner. In comparison, yes, it does look ultra-professional. I think it was, you know, you
had to deal sometimes with the mindset of -- it -- but it was a little bit of more of a dilemma in the
respect that you're an interpreter. So I'm an interpreter. I have the code of conduct. And at times,
interpreting some things that are pretty grizzly, in regards to people not seeing deaf equally as you see
deaf.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And not being able to do anything about it. And you don't want it to taint your
view of humanity. And you want to keep that positive perspective on it. And I think it's what helped me
become a good independent contractor when I have my contracts—when I have contracts, because I
can approach these issues at the negotiating table, of pre-consulting before I interpret to dispel any
misnomers.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: But it makes -- I think also because I studied a lot of history, it was easy for me
to see deaf as yet another culture.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Another group of people. And so it's difficult for me to see people's
perspective of it as a pathologist, especially in the '90s. And so I saw -- when I would see that, I would
see also how it would parallel against other cultures being oppressed, other cultures experiencing
similar things.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Better now, though.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah; somewhat. It's changed a lot I think.
>> Michelle Montelongo: I think so. And it's still changing. And I always say -- I think -- it's funny because
we have the moratorium --
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: On the NIC. And everyone -- many, not everyone, many people were up –
>> Unidentified speaker: [Inaudible]
>> Michelle Montelongo: National Interpreting Certification, that was -- there was a moratorium that
IRD, Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, had implemented for an indefinite period. And it caused quite
a stir with many interpreters. And yet I didn't see it that way. And I think because -- I come from -- I've
always viewed it as just one of many professions.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: I've always had a view of it as a profession. I've always had a view of it as in
comparison to other businesses as well. I just saw it as, "Well, it was bound to happen in the respect
that we're still new. When you look at the legal profession, when you look at the medical profession,
you're looking at -- the teaching profession, hundreds of years of a profession that has evolved into what
it is now. You know, it's no longer you go for medical necessities in a barber shop.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And nor has it been that way for quite a while, but years ago, that was the
case. Years ago, ailments were connected to evil spirits.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And it's not the case. And as an interpreting profession, we've only been
around since -- professionally on paper since the '60s.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes.
>> Michelle Montelongo: So in essence, we're still teenagers. We're still figuring out our identity. We're
still molding to who we are. The interpreters we are now, the roles that we have now, may very well
possibly change 20 years from now. They're going to differ especially in conjunction with the
advancements of technology.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And so –
>> Hannah DeVous: So let's talk about your family.
>> Michelle Montelongo: My family?
>> Hannah DeVous: Let's talk about your mom and your dad. And tell me the story of your mom telling
you to pack a specific type of clothing when you interpret, overnight conferences.
>> Michelle Montelongo: [Laughs] She always makes -- she's very concerned that I look tidy. And so my
favorite story to tell is one time when I was going back East to interpret a -- it started with this and then
thereafter spilled over. But I was going back East to interpret. And she and I were talking on the phone
and I was telling her, "You know, I have to, you know, throw in a bunch of dark things -- clothes."
Because as interpreters, we're always in dark clothes—
>> Hanna DeVous: Solid. Solid color.
>> Michelle Montelongo: --always ready—always ready for a funeral, always in black. And she asked me,
"Well, Michelle, are you going to pack a cocktail dress, like a little evening dress?" And I said, "No, I'm
interpreting." And her response was, "Well, you never know what can happen. You never know what
can happen." I don't know how she thinks a cocktail party would suddenly evolve but --
>> Hannah DeVous: You never know.
>> Michelle Montelongo: You never know; yeah.
>> Hannah DeVous: She’s always prepared, that one.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And so I've always been prepared --
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: When I pack. But my parents I think have -- I know have had a significant
impact on my life in how I handle interpreting business practices. I learned quite a bit from my father
who had his own business. And so --
>> Hannah DeVous: And he did, what did he do again?
>> Michelle Montelongo: He was a distributor of Mexican food products, and --
>> Hannah DeVous: In the Central Valley?
>> Michelle Montelongo: In the Central Valley from -- and very hard-working, you know, in order to get
there. He came from humble beginnings. And so I recall hearing this story of him working multiple jobs --
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes.
>> Michelle Montelongo: In order to accomplish that. Growing up I'd see him negotiate with other
businesses. And that really helped me in the respect of negotiating with contracts, showing your
gratitude. With my mom, I would say my love of literature, especially poetry. My granny, her mother,
loved poetry and could listen to a song or a poem and one time and be able to recount it. Had a keen
memory. Yes, yes. And since she spoke Spanish, she would gather my mom and her siblings and recite
poetry to them and do some extemporaneously. And my mom went to private school as well. In fact, I
attended the same high school that my mom did, and my aunts and uncles on my maternal side of the
family. And she recalls –She'd always recount to me stories of having to memorize and recite the
Gettysburg Address to Christina Rossetti poems, to Shakespeare, and what the nuns would have her do.
And when you grow up with that, you grow up for a love of it. And it really -- it influenced me, her love
of Shakespeare. I think my brother and my sister and I will have, you know, the complete works of
Shakespeare. And we each have our own favorite Shakespeare plays. [Laughs] And it transferred into
even how I even mentor, always making sure there's a unit in there of poetry, of literature, and realizing
literature is strongly-connected with our fluency of the English language.
>> Hannah DeVous: Absolutely, yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Because of the play on words.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And yeah.
>> Hannah DeVous: And you never know when that's going to pop up.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Definitely. You know, and I'll have a student in front of me who will say, you
know, "Oh, I'll never interpret Shakespeare. I'll never -- you know, I don't have to worry about that." And
I often tell them, "Well, do you want to interpret K through 12 because California State Standard,
freshman year "Romeo and Juliet". But you also don't -- you know, the play on words doesn't cease at -with K through 12.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It can be at, you know, the OSHA video, you will -- things that you never expect
to visit you'll be interpreting. First --
>> Hannah DeVous: Or that professor who talks in idioms for the entire --
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly.
>> Hannah DeVous: Fifty minutes of their class.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly.
>> Hannah DeVous: Which is, you know, most interpreters cringe at those idioms, those play on words,
cause they are just a—If you don't have a vast understanding of the English language then you have no
idea what's being said.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Well, even in something -- you know, if you're looking at your first day of work,
I have to watch the—series of videos. No matter where you work, there's that -- you know, different
types of videos you have to do for orientation. And some of them they start off with a song. And it's,
"Okay; so now I have to interpret a song I never --" you know. And it's trying to relay that to the
interpreting student that out there you have to learn so much more than what you think. Things aren't
as they seem.
>> Hannah DeVous: So if you could tell that four-year-old little girl in that living room of your uncle's
house one amazing thing that would happen in her life, what would -- would you tell her --
>> Michelle Montelongo: What would I --
>> Hannah DeVous: Would you tell her to change anything? Would you tell her to just keep doing what
she did?
>> Michelle Montelongo: I would say, "Don't worry about feeling like an anomaly—It's going to work
out." Thank you for nominating me, Hannah.
>> Hannah DeVous: [Laughs] You're welcome.
>> Unidentified speaker: Can I ask you a couple of questions before you --
>> Michelle Montelongo: Sure.
>> Unidentified speaker: I just wanted to ask. Why did you choose to go into interpreting? And what do
you love about it?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Okay. Why did I choose to go into interpreting? Initially, you know, I had never
thought about interpreting one bit. And I needed a foreign language to take and I found out through the
community college, it was four units as opposed to if I took it at the university, it was three. So initially,
there were opportunistic reasons to take it. And it was to gain more college credit. When I started taking
-- I had a phenomenal ASL 1 instructor. She didn't teach us sign the first week of school. We just learned
non-manual markers. And non-manual markers are the facial linguistic markers that play into the syntax
of the language. But when you're taking ASL 1, you don't know that. You're just wondering why are you
making these mouth movements? Why are you making these eye squints? So she was, as I said, very
phenomenal. Susie Call [phonetic] was her name. And she no longer lives in Fresno. But she also made
us videotape ourselves weekly. So I got used to seeing myself bungle. I got used to not taking myself so
seriously in that context knowing, "I'm an ASL 1 student, I'm going to make mistakes." Thoroughly
enjoyed it. And at one point, we had an interpreter. It's really odd because I can't recall who that
interpreter was. It wasn't any of the usual suspects of our valley. But it was someone who came in and
they were telling us what it was like to be a sign language interpreter. And at that time the, you know,
paradigm was, "It's as if you're not even there, you're just facilitating the information." Well, for
someone who is painfully shy, I thought, you know, "This is great. Sign me up. And so I decided I'm going
to be an interpreter. And I started taking all the sign language classes that were offered. And at that
time, there was no interpreter training program in the valley. But they had started a pilot one through
Global Educational System. And about a year and a half into that, I realized that phrase that's like you're
not even there. That was a septifragal ploy to get more people involved in the interpreting field.
>> Hannah DeVous: Everyone sees the interpreter.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Everyone sees the interpreter. Everyone notices and makes a comment about
the interpreter. And so it was a matter of do I switch and all of this year and a half plus goes to waste
and just had been done in vain, or do I jettison the shyness? And my thought process was, "Well you
know, by the time I'm 25 or 30, I've always wanted to overcome it. I'll have to overcome it someway, so
stick to it." And then I love about -- you know, I love the profession. If I were told I couldn't be an
interpreter anymore –I would be devastated. But I still would have a sense of self, because it doesn't
define me. My assignments don't define me. And I think that's one of the other reasons I mentor, is to
help students realize as much, "As you love it, if you let it define you, you're going to be up against a
wall." I love it in the respect of I love interacting with different cultures. I love the linguistic process of it
in the mental stimulation. I love and I'm always humbled by the fact when a deaf individual requests me
or when I'm requested by someone to interpret. It's very humbling because there's a sense of trust. And
to be an interpreter is --Have you ever heard -- did you ever hear the storywriter named Laurie Colwin?
She wrote a lot for The New Yorker in the 1980s and '90s. She has since passed. Nothing in relation to
interpreting; but the title of one of her books was called, "Lone Pilgrim", a collection of short stories. But
I've always coincided that phrase "lone pilgrim" with what it's like to be an interpreter, because you
have to fit in and blend in to every situation but still maintain your anomaly, still be able to let the
communication there. And going back to what the woman said, the interpreter said, "When it really
works when everyone knows what the role of the interpreter is, it's like you're not even there." And it's
really great, not in the sense of you lose yourself, but in the sense of everyone's focused on who they
should be.
>> Hannah DeVous: Hmm.
>> Unidentified speaker: Thank you.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Thank you.
>> Hannah DeVous: Thank you.
>> Hannah DeVous: My name is Hannah DeVous. I am 28 years old. Today is April 16th, 2016. We are in
Fresno, California at California State University at Fresno. And I know Michelle ‘cause she is a coworker
turned friend.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And my name is Michelle Montelongo. I am 46 years old. Today is April 16th,
2016. We are in the Henry Madden Library at Fresno State, Fresno State California. And I am with
Hannah DeVous, who is a colleague and good friend.
>> Hannah DeVous: All right, here we go.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Okay.
>> Hannah DeVous: So three years ago when I moved to Fresno, I started working at an interpreting
agency, and noticed a photo on the wall of a lady in a really nice black dress in the Oval Office, which I
later found out was you in the Oval Office. And then later found out that you were the first interpreter
American Sign Language interpreter to be in the Oval Office in over 50 years. So let's start there.
[Laughter] Tell me what the experience was like, what led to the moment of you getting to be the first
interpreter in the White House in 50 years?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Uh, Wow. [Laughs] Good question. I hope the answer is just -- suits the
question. That photo, that moment had a lot of significance in my life. And it really –and that's a loaded
question to ask me that, because I think it started when I was about four or five years old. When I look
at the trajectory of my life, I often wonder -- you could call it providence, you could call it fate, you can
call it serendipity. But it was at that time where my earliest memory and looking to the White House
how things connected. I must have been about four -- about four years old. And on my father's side of
the family, we took a trip to Texas because that's where he's from. And that summer, all -- I can vaguely
recall one of the popular toys on the market was this Barbie head, which rather sounds morbid. But it
was a Barbie head where you can apply makeup—
>> Hannah DeVous: Oh and do its hair.
>> Michelle Montelongo: --and do its hair.
>> Hannah DeVous: I think I had one of those.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Okay; and you could even like pull the hair so it could grow.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes, Tilly [presumed spelling] had one.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And my older sister -- I'm the youngest of four, and so my older sister, Angie,
and my cousins were playing with it. I was only four at the time, so it was something I wanted to play
with, but it wasn't yet my turn. So that whole trip I was coveting that Barbie head. [Laughs] And at one
point we were at the beach, and they were giving me all the shells they had collected. And all I could be
thinking about was, you know, "I want to play with that Barbie head." [Laughter] And towards the end of
the trip, I did play with the Barbie head, but it coincided with President Nixon resigning.
>> Hannah DeVous: Hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And --
>> Hannah DeVous: Were you watching it on TV?
>> Michelle Montelongo: We were watching it on TV. It was at my uncle's house.
>> Hannah DeVous: Uh-huh.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And all of the relatives were there, all of my father's siblings. He comes from a
very big family. And they were all there because we were visiting from California. And the family is split
politically in regards to we have the republicans, we have the democrats. And I'm this four-year-old
sitting on the floor finally getting to play with the Barbie head. And it suddenly doesn't seem as
significant, because half of my relatives are talking about the travesty this is for the American -- for
Americans. And then the other half are saying, you know, "Don't be so naive. No; he had it coming," and
so forth. And seeing this bickering and this debate going on within my family had a very -- over this man
whom I didn't even know, really affected my life and my worldview. I had -- because everyone around
me was older, I had -- I developed the notion that I too should have an opinion.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And I felt so self-conscious and so embarrassed that I didn't have an opinion. I
didn't know anything about Watergate. And I was too immature to realize, nor did many of the other
four-year-olds, you know, across America, but I thought they did. Because if everyone around me reads
the newspaper, and everyone around me knows who President Nixon is, and knows the Watergate
Scandal, how is it, it escaped me? And I became very self-conscious. And I made the decision -- never
told anyone, but I made the decision of "You know, I'll just keep quiet. I'll play with the Barbie, but I'll
listen to what they're saying so this way I could figure out and develop an opinion." It impacted my life
in a lot of ways because I realized I knew my relatives, my whole family loved one another, but it was
okay to have a different political opinion. No matter how visceral it was I knew at the end of the day,
these people loved one another. The other thing that really kind of transformed me was this man over a
thousand miles away impacted my evening that night. And so if he could have an effect, what type of
effect can my decisions have on others? And led to being slightly hyper-paranoid, if you can be slightly
hyper [laughs] about decisions I make, and becoming very methodical in my approach as much as a fouryear-old can be.
>> Hannah DeVous: I think that -- I mean, I've never heard that story before, so knowing you the way
that I know you like more on a primary--
>> Michelle Montelongo: Explains a lot?
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes; well yes. I mean, primarily like professional level like to see how you always go
above and beyond what the job title is and what to have everything at your fingertips. Some people may
say that's like, you know, anal retentive, but really [overlapping] --
>> Michelle Montelongo: In an endearing way.
>> Hannah DeVous: In a sweet way. In our profession it makes what we do better.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It was a fear of bungling. I definitely didn't want to, and I definitely didn't want
it to affect anyone's lives. And that started me interested in politics. And from that day forward, it was
never missing missing—listening to a presidential debate, never missing listening to -- watching the
presidential conventions each party's. I'd watch the Democratic Presidential Convention, I'd watch the
Republican one. I was always listening to anything political but never saying anything because, again, not
realizing the age difference that those that did have well-informed opinions were 30 years my junior—
senior.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yeah. And then when I was in -- I think I was about eight years old was a lot of
the turmoil regarding Southwest Asia, the Middle East and the Shah of Iran fleeing the country. And
one— that was very much in the news. And at one point I was sitting in the back of the family station
wagon, my parents are driving and the house across the street was for sale. And I'm listening to my
parents debate over where they think the Shah went. And one of them jokingly -- but I didn't know it
was jokingly said, "You know, for all we know, they could be the new neighbors." And sitting in the back
seat, you know, eight years old thinking, "Oh my gosh, who's this Shah fellow? And where is Iran? And I
have to know this, especially if he's going to be my neighbor? And is he good or bad?" And still in the
concrete phase of, "Is this person a good person? Is this person a bad person? Where does he reflect in
comparison to Nixon --?"
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: That I had learned about? Yeah.
>> Unidentified speaker: How old were you?
>> Michelle Montelongo: I was about four -- eight years old at the time. Yeah. And so vowing to myself -like when I was four, I vowed to myself, "I'm going to learn about Watergate. I'm going to learn about
President Nixon." When I was eight, it was vowing to myself, again, "I'm going to learn about the Middle
East, Iran, what a Shah is, and how do you spell it?"
>> Hannah DeVous: And is he really living across the house—in the house across the street?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly. And curiously enough, you know, I never told anyone though. And it
was also feeling slightly defeated because, you know, when you're four, you don't realize how much you
don't know. And that impacted me and I'm thinking, "This is something new I have to know." And so
passively listening in on the TV and so forth, and then feeling like I was, you know, once again hit
another wall when I was about eight and the, "Okay; here's something else I don't know that I need to
add to this list. It's growing." And so I thought to my -- you know, I went back to school thinking, "Okay;
I'm just not going to mention the Middle East crisis to anyone at school, because they probably have an
opinion and I won't be able to contribute to the conversation because I thought about all eight-year-olds
knew who the Shah of Iran was.
>> Hannah DeVous: No, probably not.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And again, I didn't think of, "No; my parents are older than I am. They're
adults. They read the newspaper. And so when I returned the next day to school, there was a little bit of
anxiety of, "Just make sure you don't mention this into the conversation."
>> Hannah DeVous: So when you were standing in the Oval Office interpreting, you probably -- your first
thought is interpreting because that's what interpreters do is only think about the job at hand, and all of
the knowledge we have relating to the job at hand. But what did it feel like when you left the Oval
Office? Like, did you feel --?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Surreal. I think in any high-profile assignment, in any assignment in general
there's, you know, the fear of bungling. But then it's realizing that's a luxury you can't afford to have. In
that assignment, everything was surreal from the run-up to it to afterwards. I can't really describe it, it's
-- other than surreal. I was talking last night to a supervisor, a fellow supervisor of interpreters, because
being that hyper-paranoid person of wanting to do the ethical thing, I sought ethical advice.
>> Hannah DeVous: mm-hmm, Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: You as an interpreter know we have a code of conduct and what we can
discuss, what we can't discuss. And it was, "What can I discuss about it? What can't I discuss? What can I
discuss about other assignments? What can't I?" Even though I already know the code of conduct, it's
also the idea of making sure I'm interpreting it correctly, no pun intended there. [Laughter] Making sure
I'm adhering to it. Similar to the Constitution, you know, it's written in a certain format for
interpretation. And when I left, it was just all surreal. I don't -- it didn't hit until the following week when
the photo was on the webpage. And I started receiving text messages on my phone of, "Check the White
House webpage. Check the White House webpage." And I was out of town interpreting at one at my
contracts. One of the sites where this interpreting was situated right next to a library, a public library. So
I snuck into the public library and -- it was open, I didn't like break into and I say, "Snuck in", but you
know, went in there, and I used one of the computers, and followed the directions of access the White
House webpage. No one told me why, they just -- I started -- I just received over ten text messages of,
"Check the White House webpage." And as I accessed, you know, keyed in the URL, the photo came up,
and I led out fairly loud audible gasp in the library. Instantly, you know, hand over mouth and apology,
apology to everyone around, "So sorry." And it was -- it's very much like an out-of-body experience --
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Because but then at the same time, it was going back to that little girl who was
four years old and didn't know anything about politics. And then I just thought back to the trajectory of
my interpreting career of just growing up, different things that had you told me—
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: I never would have thought. I would have -- that would have occurred even in
becoming an interpreter. I don't think when you're studying to be an interpreter, you think of what
you'll be interpreting in respect to those type of events. Often, you're thinking educational and medical
because those are so predominant in our field. And you don't realize the variety within it, even if it's,
you know, like a Tupperware -- you don't think you'll be interpreting a Tupperware party. You don't
think you'll be interpreting someone's first day of work.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes. Or the first time you get to see that baby on the heart monitor.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yeah.
>> Hannah DeVous: You don't think about that until it happens.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yeah.
>> Hannah DeVous: And those moments are -- I mean, I think the White House and the Oval Office is a
grander scale, but at the same time like interpreting for a mom hearing her baby, hearing by feeling the
monitor her baby's heartbeat for the first time is also surreal.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It's -- you know, it was a great experience, but it doesn't define who I am.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And it's not why I entered the profession. And every time I'm interpreting for a
deaf individual, I truly am humbled because the amount of trust that's placed.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And I think that's also why I mentor.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: To help the next generation, you know.
>> Hannah DeVous: It's funny, on my way here I was thinking about the very first job I had at Fresno
State University, where we are now, is, uh, I was interpreting an evening class. I had just been hired. I
had just moved to the city. And the coordinator was like, "I'm going to put you in a class with an
interpreter named Michelle." And so I was like, "Who’s this Michelle lady? I don't know anybody in town
– so I had like one friend --
>> Michelle Montelongo: It's the one in the photo. [Laughs]
>> Hannah DeVous: I had one friend -- I didn't know at the time. I had one friend who was working with
me. And I was like, "Do you know Michelle?" And she was like, "Um, Yes." And I was like, "Should I be
really scared? And she was like, "No, she's great.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Aw.
>> Hannah DeVous: She's just really, really professional." So I remember like dressing up super above
and beyond what I would have. And knowing you now I'm like, "Yeah. I made a really great impression.
And I never wore like casual clothes the entire semester because I was terrified. I wanted to impress you
so much because I knew you were like awesome.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Aw.
>> Hannah DeVous: But then and the same time, like the coordinator was like, "No; she really loves
young interpreters, and like she mentors a lot. And she does a lot of supervision."
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes.
>> Hannah DeVous: And like just knowing that made my job easier because from like the second week
we were just --
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes.
>> Hannah DeVous: Conversing about stuff. So your love of mentoring goes far and beyond just what
you do for, you know, other universities and stuff, which is awesome.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Thank you. Thank you.
>> Hannah DeVous: Thanks for that. Thanks for being awesome.
>> Michelle Montelongo: I had no -- I think there's a part of me that's always --I don't know, taken
aback, or find it very amusing in regards to the, "You know, she's so professional the way she dresses."
Because if people see me at home, it's sweats, hair up in a clip, [laughs] six socks on because I'm always
cold. But I think how I dress is also just --Out of comfort. It sounds odd, but out of comfort, and out of
ease of the day in going to 12 years of private school you're always wearing a uniform. And it's kind of
ironic because we've discussed it, my senior -- the only rebellious thing I did growing up was I didn't
wear the uniform my senior year in high school. And I don't know if I should be embarrassed at the fact
that I really never got caught. [Laughs] In fact, I got complimented by some of the nuns. You know, "Nice
dress, sweetie." It was never -- and I think I did that primarily out of the oblique thinking, "Okay, I'm a
teenager; I need to rebel in some way. How do I do it?" And not really being enthusiastic about
rebellion, but figuring out it's a rite -- thinking, "It's a rite of passage all teenagers do.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right, you have to do something.
>> Michelle Montelongo: What should mine be? Hey. Let's do it, the uniform."
>> Hannah DeVous: Let me wear some A-line dresses, it's a school.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly; they were A-line skirts. And I always tease my mother, though,
because I blame her for it. My freshman year she didn't like how uniform skirts fit. So she actually took
me a seamstress so that they could have a more flattering fit. And she had them made into A-line style
so when I would sit, they wouldn't bunch up. And as the years progressed in high school, it was, "Well, if
I could make this adjustment to make it look better, maybe I can make this adjustment." So by the time
it was senior year, I had jettisoned the whole uniform completely, but gradually within the four years in
high school. And then I went to college. And it wasn't until -- well when I was in college just the idea of,
"Oh my gosh, what do I wear?"
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes. It's kind of overwhelming when you grow up—when you wear a uniform.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes. I mean --
>> Hannah DeVous: And you have all of these choices at your fingertips, and you don't know what to
wear.
>> Michelle Montelongo: You know, we had formal dress day. And I found it easy on the weekends in
high school because they're weekends. But on formal dress day, though, it was, you're going to chapel.
So there were still rules within that of what you could wear. And in going to college it was, you know,
"What do I do? How do I dress," because I went to -- it was my first experience attending a public entity.
And I didn't fully understand what that meant until I was in line to buy books. Because when I was
growing up, private school you have to pay for tuition, you have to pay for your books, you have to pay
for your uniform when you do decide to wear it. And --
>> Hannah DeVous: And then your mom has to pay for alterations.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly. I don't know if my father knows about that. And my mom would make
it a practice to have me ask my father for the tuition check. And it was an interesting exchange, and
nonverbal exchange. And he knew I was about to ask for that tuition check when he'd seen me walking
towards him. And the expression that would come over his face wasn't a pleasing one. But at the same
time, it wasn't one of anger, either. It was just -- I can't even describe it. But I'd walk up to him, and you
know, "Papa, I need the check for school." He'd write me the check, he'd hand it over, grumble a few
things. And I'd stand there and say, "Well, I also need to buy books," which he knew because we would
go through this --
>> Hannah DeVous: Every year.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Every year. [Sighs] He'd have a deep sigh. He'd give me some money and he'd
look at me and say, "Make sure you buy used books." [Laughter] And --
>> Hannah DeVous: So did you buy used books your first year of college?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Well, yeah, I did. And luckily -- but this time when I started going to college it
was different. I walked up to him to ask him for the tuition check. He asked me for how much. I told him.
And when I told him, I saw what had at best could be described as a look of relief in his eyes. And he led
out a sigh, wrote the check, and without any prompting, gave me money for books without -- smiled and
said, "Do you need money for books?" Gave me the money, didn't even say, "Buy used books." He was
just almost happy. And I had never seen that expression in relation to money with my father. And when I
was in line to purchase books, I suddenly realized this is the difference of a public and private education.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It was because it cost less to go to a public school, to college than it costs to
attend my high school, than it did to attend my grade school. And upon realizing that then the daunting
sensation of, "So about 30% of this is being paid for by taxpayers."
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And it went back to being that five-year-old of, "So other people are affecting
my life and I'm affecting other people's monetary status." And realizing, "Okay; once I get into this
workforce thing and figure out what I want to do for a living, I have to give back to the university in
some way." And that's what started -- that was one of the things that started me in mentoring, was
giving back to the taxpayers.
>> Hannah DeVous: And those that come after you.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes.
>> Hannah DeVous: Those little interpreters that come after you.
>> Michelle Montelongo: [Laughs] They're never little.
>> Hannah DeVous: They are not; no. Let's talk about—let’s talk about the ADA, American Disabilities
Act.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes.
>> Hannah DeVous: That was passed in 1990, right around the time you started interpreting.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Well, I was still taking classes.
>> Hannah DeVous: When you were still taking classes; yeah. So do you notice a change? Did that
suddenly validate your profession more? The profession.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It --I recall thinking -- because I know I was taking courses at the time. And at
the same time I was also volunteering at a deaf agency.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And when it passed, getting clarification because it's something -- the
employment aspect of it is similar to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And so figuring out those things, But I think initially there was the general
assumption of, "Okay; so now everyone will be equal. Now everyone will see deaf, as you know, as
equals, and it won't -- there won't be as many barriers." Without thinking of, "Okay; doesn't mean the
mindset's there."
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And living in the Central Valley, it was a little bit -- I can't say different because
I only had -- up until then I'd only lived in the Central Valley. So I don't know what it was like in
comparison to other cities and other states. I just recall the first time I started interpreting with --
outside of the interpreting -- and outside of the confines of a deaf agency when I was on my own going
to different universities and so forth, being shocked back then -- you know, back in my day, that there
wasn't the regulations in regards to who can interpret.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: So I didn't have a performance exam. It was, "Oh, you interpret?" And when I
was hired by a place, realizing a lot of the other interpreters were hired only because they said they had
taken a couple of sign language classes. And I think that's what started the perceived ultra-professional.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And I always say -- because it's always a matter of perspective, it's all relative
to the next person, you know, when you have people that are just taking sign language courses, and
you're placing them in roles of interpreter.
>> Hannah DeVous: Not the same.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It's not the same as when you have someone who's studying and learning
trying to become an interpreter and is talking to other interpreters about it, and approaches it in a
professional manner. In comparison, yes, it does look ultra-professional. I think it was, you know, you
had to deal sometimes with the mindset of -- it -- but it was a little bit of more of a dilemma in the
respect that you're an interpreter. So I'm an interpreter. I have the code of conduct. And at times,
interpreting some things that are pretty grizzly, in regards to people not seeing deaf equally as you see
deaf.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And not being able to do anything about it. And you don't want it to taint your
view of humanity. And you want to keep that positive perspective on it. And I think it's what helped me
become a good independent contractor when I have my contracts—when I have contracts, because I
can approach these issues at the negotiating table, of pre-consulting before I interpret to dispel any
misnomers.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: But it makes -- I think also because I studied a lot of history, it was easy for me
to see deaf as yet another culture.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Another group of people. And so it's difficult for me to see people's
perspective of it as a pathologist, especially in the '90s. And so I saw -- when I would see that, I would
see also how it would parallel against other cultures being oppressed, other cultures experiencing
similar things.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Better now, though.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah; somewhat. It's changed a lot I think.
>> Michelle Montelongo: I think so. And it's still changing. And I always say -- I think -- it's funny because
we have the moratorium --
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: On the NIC. And everyone -- many, not everyone, many people were up –
>> Unidentified speaker: [Inaudible]
>> Michelle Montelongo: National Interpreting Certification, that was -- there was a moratorium that
IRD, Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, had implemented for an indefinite period. And it caused quite
a stir with many interpreters. And yet I didn't see it that way. And I think because -- I come from -- I've
always viewed it as just one of many professions.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: I've always had a view of it as a profession. I've always had a view of it as in
comparison to other businesses as well. I just saw it as, "Well, it was bound to happen in the respect
that we're still new. When you look at the legal profession, when you look at the medical profession,
you're looking at -- the teaching profession, hundreds of years of a profession that has evolved into what
it is now. You know, it's no longer you go for medical necessities in a barber shop.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And nor has it been that way for quite a while, but years ago, that was the
case. Years ago, ailments were connected to evil spirits.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And it's not the case. And as an interpreting profession, we've only been
around since -- professionally on paper since the '60s.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes.
>> Michelle Montelongo: So in essence, we're still teenagers. We're still figuring out our identity. We're
still molding to who we are. The interpreters we are now, the roles that we have now, may very well
possibly change 20 years from now. They're going to differ especially in conjunction with the
advancements of technology.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And so –
>> Hannah DeVous: So let's talk about your family.
>> Michelle Montelongo: My family?
>> Hannah DeVous: Let's talk about your mom and your dad. And tell me the story of your mom telling
you to pack a specific type of clothing when you interpret, overnight conferences.
>> Michelle Montelongo: [Laughs] She always makes -- she's very concerned that I look tidy. And so my
favorite story to tell is one time when I was going back East to interpret a -- it started with this and then
thereafter spilled over. But I was going back East to interpret. And she and I were talking on the phone
and I was telling her, "You know, I have to, you know, throw in a bunch of dark things -- clothes."
Because as interpreters, we're always in dark clothes—
>> Hanna DeVous: Solid. Solid color.
>> Michelle Montelongo: --always ready—always ready for a funeral, always in black. And she asked me,
"Well, Michelle, are you going to pack a cocktail dress, like a little evening dress?" And I said, "No, I'm
interpreting." And her response was, "Well, you never know what can happen. You never know what
can happen." I don't know how she thinks a cocktail party would suddenly evolve but --
>> Hannah DeVous: You never know.
>> Michelle Montelongo: You never know; yeah.
>> Hannah DeVous: She’s always prepared, that one.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And so I've always been prepared --
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: When I pack. But my parents I think have -- I know have had a significant
impact on my life in how I handle interpreting business practices. I learned quite a bit from my father
who had his own business. And so --
>> Hannah DeVous: And he did, what did he do again?
>> Michelle Montelongo: He was a distributor of Mexican food products, and --
>> Hannah DeVous: In the Central Valley?
>> Michelle Montelongo: In the Central Valley from -- and very hard-working, you know, in order to get
there. He came from humble beginnings. And so I recall hearing this story of him working multiple jobs --
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes.
>> Michelle Montelongo: In order to accomplish that. Growing up I'd see him negotiate with other
businesses. And that really helped me in the respect of negotiating with contracts, showing your
gratitude. With my mom, I would say my love of literature, especially poetry. My granny, her mother,
loved poetry and could listen to a song or a poem and one time and be able to recount it. Had a keen
memory. Yes, yes. And since she spoke Spanish, she would gather my mom and her siblings and recite
poetry to them and do some extemporaneously. And my mom went to private school as well. In fact, I
attended the same high school that my mom did, and my aunts and uncles on my maternal side of the
family. And she recalls –She'd always recount to me stories of having to memorize and recite the
Gettysburg Address to Christina Rossetti poems, to Shakespeare, and what the nuns would have her do.
And when you grow up with that, you grow up for a love of it. And it really -- it influenced me, her love
of Shakespeare. I think my brother and my sister and I will have, you know, the complete works of
Shakespeare. And we each have our own favorite Shakespeare plays. [Laughs] And it transferred into
even how I even mentor, always making sure there's a unit in there of poetry, of literature, and realizing
literature is strongly-connected with our fluency of the English language.
>> Hannah DeVous: Absolutely, yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Because of the play on words.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And yeah.
>> Hannah DeVous: And you never know when that's going to pop up.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Definitely. You know, and I'll have a student in front of me who will say, you
know, "Oh, I'll never interpret Shakespeare. I'll never -- you know, I don't have to worry about that." And
I often tell them, "Well, do you want to interpret K through 12 because California State Standard,
freshman year "Romeo and Juliet". But you also don't -- you know, the play on words doesn't cease at -with K through 12.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It can be at, you know, the OSHA video, you will -- things that you never expect
to visit you'll be interpreting. First --
>> Hannah DeVous: Or that professor who talks in idioms for the entire --
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly.
>> Hannah DeVous: Fifty minutes of their class.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly.
>> Hannah DeVous: Which is, you know, most interpreters cringe at those idioms, those play on words,
cause they are just a—If you don't have a vast understanding of the English language then you have no
idea what's being said.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Well, even in something -- you know, if you're looking at your first day of work,
I have to watch the—series of videos. No matter where you work, there's that -- you know, different
types of videos you have to do for orientation. And some of them they start off with a song. And it's,
"Okay; so now I have to interpret a song I never --" you know. And it's trying to relay that to the
interpreting student that out there you have to learn so much more than what you think. Things aren't
as they seem.
>> Hannah DeVous: So if you could tell that four-year-old little girl in that living room of your uncle's
house one amazing thing that would happen in her life, what would -- would you tell her --
>> Michelle Montelongo: What would I --
>> Hannah DeVous: Would you tell her to change anything? Would you tell her to just keep doing what
she did?
>> Michelle Montelongo: I would say, "Don't worry about feeling like an anomaly—It's going to work
out." Thank you for nominating me, Hannah.
>> Hannah DeVous: [Laughs] You're welcome.
>> Unidentified speaker: Can I ask you a couple of questions before you --
>> Michelle Montelongo: Sure.
>> Unidentified speaker: I just wanted to ask. Why did you choose to go into interpreting? And what do
you love about it?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Okay. Why did I choose to go into interpreting? Initially, you know, I had never
thought about interpreting one bit. And I needed a foreign language to take and I found out through the
community college, it was four units as opposed to if I took it at the university, it was three. So initially,
there were opportunistic reasons to take it. And it was to gain more college credit. When I started taking
-- I had a phenomenal ASL 1 instructor. She didn't teach us sign the first week of school. We just learned
non-manual markers. And non-manual markers are the facial linguistic markers that play into the syntax
of the language. But when you're taking ASL 1, you don't know that. You're just wondering why are you
making these mouth movements? Why are you making these eye squints? So she was, as I said, very
phenomenal. Susie Call [phonetic] was her name. And she no longer lives in Fresno. But she also made
us videotape ourselves weekly. So I got used to seeing myself bungle. I got used to not taking myself so
seriously in that context knowing, "I'm an ASL 1 student, I'm going to make mistakes." Thoroughly
enjoyed it. And at one point, we had an interpreter. It's really odd because I can't recall who that
interpreter was. It wasn't any of the usual suspects of our valley. But it was someone who came in and
they were telling us what it was like to be a sign language interpreter. And at that time the, you know,
paradigm was, "It's as if you're not even there, you're just facilitating the information." Well, for
someone who is painfully shy, I thought, you know, "This is great. Sign me up. And so I decided I'm going
to be an interpreter. And I started taking all the sign language classes that were offered. And at that
time, there was no interpreter training program in the valley. But they had started a pilot one through
Global Educational System. And about a year and a half into that, I realized that phrase that's like you're
not even there. That was a septifragal ploy to get more people involved in the interpreting field.
>> Hannah DeVous: Everyone sees the interpreter.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Everyone sees the interpreter. Everyone notices and makes a comment about
the interpreter. And so it was a matter of do I switch and all of this year and a half plus goes to waste
and just had been done in vain, or do I jettison the shyness? And my thought process was, "Well you
know, by the time I'm 25 or 30, I've always wanted to overcome it. I'll have to overcome it someway, so
stick to it." And then I love about -- you know, I love the profession. If I were told I couldn't be an
interpreter anymore –I would be devastated. But I still would have a sense of self, because it doesn't
define me. My assignments don't define me. And I think that's one of the other reasons I mentor, is to
help students realize as much, "As you love it, if you let it define you, you're going to be up against a
wall." I love it in the respect of I love interacting with different cultures. I love the linguistic process of it
in the mental stimulation. I love and I'm always humbled by the fact when a deaf individual requests me
or when I'm requested by someone to interpret. It's very humbling because there's a sense of trust. And
to be an interpreter is --Have you ever heard -- did you ever hear the storywriter named Laurie Colwin?
She wrote a lot for The New Yorker in the 1980s and '90s. She has since passed. Nothing in relation to
interpreting; but the title of one of her books was called, "Lone Pilgrim", a collection of short stories. But
I've always coincided that phrase "lone pilgrim" with what it's like to be an interpreter, because you
have to fit in and blend in to every situation but still maintain your anomaly, still be able to let the
communication there. And going back to what the woman said, the interpreter said, "When it really
works when everyone knows what the role of the interpreter is, it's like you're not even there." And it's
really great, not in the sense of you lose yourself, but in the sense of everyone's focused on who they
should be.
>> Hannah DeVous: Hmm.
>> Unidentified speaker: Thank you.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Thank you.
>> Hannah DeVous: Thank you.
Fresno, California at California State University at Fresno. And I know Michelle ‘cause she is a coworker
turned friend.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And my name is Michelle Montelongo. I am 46 years old. Today is April 16th,
2016. We are in the Henry Madden Library at Fresno State, Fresno State California. And I am with
Hannah DeVous, who is a colleague and good friend.
>> Hannah DeVous: All right, here we go.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Okay.
>> Hannah DeVous: So three years ago when I moved to Fresno, I started working at an interpreting
agency, and noticed a photo on the wall of a lady in a really nice black dress in the Oval Office, which I
later found out was you in the Oval Office. And then later found out that you were the first interpreter
American Sign Language interpreter to be in the Oval Office in over 50 years. So let's start there.
[Laughter] Tell me what the experience was like, what led to the moment of you getting to be the first
interpreter in the White House in 50 years?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Uh, Wow. [Laughs] Good question. I hope the answer is just -- suits the
question. That photo, that moment had a lot of significance in my life. And it really –and that's a loaded
question to ask me that, because I think it started when I was about four or five years old. When I look
at the trajectory of my life, I often wonder -- you could call it providence, you could call it fate, you can
call it serendipity. But it was at that time where my earliest memory and looking to the White House
how things connected. I must have been about four -- about four years old. And on my father's side of
the family, we took a trip to Texas because that's where he's from. And that summer, all -- I can vaguely
recall one of the popular toys on the market was this Barbie head, which rather sounds morbid. But it
was a Barbie head where you can apply makeup—
>> Hannah DeVous: Oh and do its hair.
>> Michelle Montelongo: --and do its hair.
>> Hannah DeVous: I think I had one of those.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Okay; and you could even like pull the hair so it could grow.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes, Tilly [presumed spelling] had one.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And my older sister -- I'm the youngest of four, and so my older sister, Angie,
and my cousins were playing with it. I was only four at the time, so it was something I wanted to play
with, but it wasn't yet my turn. So that whole trip I was coveting that Barbie head. [Laughs] And at one
point we were at the beach, and they were giving me all the shells they had collected. And all I could be
thinking about was, you know, "I want to play with that Barbie head." [Laughter] And towards the end of
the trip, I did play with the Barbie head, but it coincided with President Nixon resigning.
>> Hannah DeVous: Hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And --
>> Hannah DeVous: Were you watching it on TV?
>> Michelle Montelongo: We were watching it on TV. It was at my uncle's house.
>> Hannah DeVous: Uh-huh.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And all of the relatives were there, all of my father's siblings. He comes from a
very big family. And they were all there because we were visiting from California. And the family is split
politically in regards to we have the republicans, we have the democrats. And I'm this four-year-old
sitting on the floor finally getting to play with the Barbie head. And it suddenly doesn't seem as
significant, because half of my relatives are talking about the travesty this is for the American -- for
Americans. And then the other half are saying, you know, "Don't be so naive. No; he had it coming," and
so forth. And seeing this bickering and this debate going on within my family had a very -- over this man
whom I didn't even know, really affected my life and my worldview. I had -- because everyone around
me was older, I had -- I developed the notion that I too should have an opinion.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And I felt so self-conscious and so embarrassed that I didn't have an opinion. I
didn't know anything about Watergate. And I was too immature to realize, nor did many of the other
four-year-olds, you know, across America, but I thought they did. Because if everyone around me reads
the newspaper, and everyone around me knows who President Nixon is, and knows the Watergate
Scandal, how is it, it escaped me? And I became very self-conscious. And I made the decision -- never
told anyone, but I made the decision of "You know, I'll just keep quiet. I'll play with the Barbie, but I'll
listen to what they're saying so this way I could figure out and develop an opinion." It impacted my life
in a lot of ways because I realized I knew my relatives, my whole family loved one another, but it was
okay to have a different political opinion. No matter how visceral it was I knew at the end of the day,
these people loved one another. The other thing that really kind of transformed me was this man over a
thousand miles away impacted my evening that night. And so if he could have an effect, what type of
effect can my decisions have on others? And led to being slightly hyper-paranoid, if you can be slightly
hyper [laughs] about decisions I make, and becoming very methodical in my approach as much as a fouryear-old can be.
>> Hannah DeVous: I think that -- I mean, I've never heard that story before, so knowing you the way
that I know you like more on a primary--
>> Michelle Montelongo: Explains a lot?
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes; well yes. I mean, primarily like professional level like to see how you always go
above and beyond what the job title is and what to have everything at your fingertips. Some people may
say that's like, you know, anal retentive, but really [overlapping] --
>> Michelle Montelongo: In an endearing way.
>> Hannah DeVous: In a sweet way. In our profession it makes what we do better.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It was a fear of bungling. I definitely didn't want to, and I definitely didn't want
it to affect anyone's lives. And that started me interested in politics. And from that day forward, it was
never missing missing—listening to a presidential debate, never missing listening to -- watching the
presidential conventions each party's. I'd watch the Democratic Presidential Convention, I'd watch the
Republican one. I was always listening to anything political but never saying anything because, again, not
realizing the age difference that those that did have well-informed opinions were 30 years my junior—
senior.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yeah. And then when I was in -- I think I was about eight years old was a lot of
the turmoil regarding Southwest Asia, the Middle East and the Shah of Iran fleeing the country. And
one— that was very much in the news. And at one point I was sitting in the back of the family station
wagon, my parents are driving and the house across the street was for sale. And I'm listening to my
parents debate over where they think the Shah went. And one of them jokingly -- but I didn't know it
was jokingly said, "You know, for all we know, they could be the new neighbors." And sitting in the back
seat, you know, eight years old thinking, "Oh my gosh, who's this Shah fellow? And where is Iran? And I
have to know this, especially if he's going to be my neighbor? And is he good or bad?" And still in the
concrete phase of, "Is this person a good person? Is this person a bad person? Where does he reflect in
comparison to Nixon --?"
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: That I had learned about? Yeah.
>> Unidentified speaker: How old were you?
>> Michelle Montelongo: I was about four -- eight years old at the time. Yeah. And so vowing to myself -like when I was four, I vowed to myself, "I'm going to learn about Watergate. I'm going to learn about
President Nixon." When I was eight, it was vowing to myself, again, "I'm going to learn about the Middle
East, Iran, what a Shah is, and how do you spell it?"
>> Hannah DeVous: And is he really living across the house—in the house across the street?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly. And curiously enough, you know, I never told anyone though. And it
was also feeling slightly defeated because, you know, when you're four, you don't realize how much you
don't know. And that impacted me and I'm thinking, "This is something new I have to know." And so
passively listening in on the TV and so forth, and then feeling like I was, you know, once again hit
another wall when I was about eight and the, "Okay; here's something else I don't know that I need to
add to this list. It's growing." And so I thought to my -- you know, I went back to school thinking, "Okay;
I'm just not going to mention the Middle East crisis to anyone at school, because they probably have an
opinion and I won't be able to contribute to the conversation because I thought about all eight-year-olds
knew who the Shah of Iran was.
>> Hannah DeVous: No, probably not.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And again, I didn't think of, "No; my parents are older than I am. They're
adults. They read the newspaper. And so when I returned the next day to school, there was a little bit of
anxiety of, "Just make sure you don't mention this into the conversation."
>> Hannah DeVous: So when you were standing in the Oval Office interpreting, you probably -- your first
thought is interpreting because that's what interpreters do is only think about the job at hand, and all of
the knowledge we have relating to the job at hand. But what did it feel like when you left the Oval
Office? Like, did you feel --?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Surreal. I think in any high-profile assignment, in any assignment in general
there's, you know, the fear of bungling. But then it's realizing that's a luxury you can't afford to have. In
that assignment, everything was surreal from the run-up to it to afterwards. I can't really describe it, it's
-- other than surreal. I was talking last night to a supervisor, a fellow supervisor of interpreters, because
being that hyper-paranoid person of wanting to do the ethical thing, I sought ethical advice.
>> Hannah DeVous: mm-hmm, Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: You as an interpreter know we have a code of conduct and what we can
discuss, what we can't discuss. And it was, "What can I discuss about it? What can't I discuss? What can I
discuss about other assignments? What can't I?" Even though I already know the code of conduct, it's
also the idea of making sure I'm interpreting it correctly, no pun intended there. [Laughter] Making sure
I'm adhering to it. Similar to the Constitution, you know, it's written in a certain format for
interpretation. And when I left, it was just all surreal. I don't -- it didn't hit until the following week when
the photo was on the webpage. And I started receiving text messages on my phone of, "Check the White
House webpage. Check the White House webpage." And I was out of town interpreting at one at my
contracts. One of the sites where this interpreting was situated right next to a library, a public library. So
I snuck into the public library and -- it was open, I didn't like break into and I say, "Snuck in", but you
know, went in there, and I used one of the computers, and followed the directions of access the White
House webpage. No one told me why, they just -- I started -- I just received over ten text messages of,
"Check the White House webpage." And as I accessed, you know, keyed in the URL, the photo came up,
and I led out fairly loud audible gasp in the library. Instantly, you know, hand over mouth and apology,
apology to everyone around, "So sorry." And it was -- it's very much like an out-of-body experience --
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Because but then at the same time, it was going back to that little girl who was
four years old and didn't know anything about politics. And then I just thought back to the trajectory of
my interpreting career of just growing up, different things that had you told me—
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: I never would have thought. I would have -- that would have occurred even in
becoming an interpreter. I don't think when you're studying to be an interpreter, you think of what
you'll be interpreting in respect to those type of events. Often, you're thinking educational and medical
because those are so predominant in our field. And you don't realize the variety within it, even if it's,
you know, like a Tupperware -- you don't think you'll be interpreting a Tupperware party. You don't
think you'll be interpreting someone's first day of work.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes. Or the first time you get to see that baby on the heart monitor.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yeah.
>> Hannah DeVous: You don't think about that until it happens.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yeah.
>> Hannah DeVous: And those moments are -- I mean, I think the White House and the Oval Office is a
grander scale, but at the same time like interpreting for a mom hearing her baby, hearing by feeling the
monitor her baby's heartbeat for the first time is also surreal.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It's -- you know, it was a great experience, but it doesn't define who I am.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And it's not why I entered the profession. And every time I'm interpreting for a
deaf individual, I truly am humbled because the amount of trust that's placed.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And I think that's also why I mentor.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: To help the next generation, you know.
>> Hannah DeVous: It's funny, on my way here I was thinking about the very first job I had at Fresno
State University, where we are now, is, uh, I was interpreting an evening class. I had just been hired. I
had just moved to the city. And the coordinator was like, "I'm going to put you in a class with an
interpreter named Michelle." And so I was like, "Who’s this Michelle lady? I don't know anybody in town
– so I had like one friend --
>> Michelle Montelongo: It's the one in the photo. [Laughs]
>> Hannah DeVous: I had one friend -- I didn't know at the time. I had one friend who was working with
me. And I was like, "Do you know Michelle?" And she was like, "Um, Yes." And I was like, "Should I be
really scared? And she was like, "No, she's great.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Aw.
>> Hannah DeVous: She's just really, really professional." So I remember like dressing up super above
and beyond what I would have. And knowing you now I'm like, "Yeah. I made a really great impression.
And I never wore like casual clothes the entire semester because I was terrified. I wanted to impress you
so much because I knew you were like awesome.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Aw.
>> Hannah DeVous: But then and the same time, like the coordinator was like, "No; she really loves
young interpreters, and like she mentors a lot. And she does a lot of supervision."
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes.
>> Hannah DeVous: And like just knowing that made my job easier because from like the second week
we were just --
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes.
>> Hannah DeVous: Conversing about stuff. So your love of mentoring goes far and beyond just what
you do for, you know, other universities and stuff, which is awesome.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Thank you. Thank you.
>> Hannah DeVous: Thanks for that. Thanks for being awesome.
>> Michelle Montelongo: I had no -- I think there's a part of me that's always --I don't know, taken
aback, or find it very amusing in regards to the, "You know, she's so professional the way she dresses."
Because if people see me at home, it's sweats, hair up in a clip, [laughs] six socks on because I'm always
cold. But I think how I dress is also just --Out of comfort. It sounds odd, but out of comfort, and out of
ease of the day in going to 12 years of private school you're always wearing a uniform. And it's kind of
ironic because we've discussed it, my senior -- the only rebellious thing I did growing up was I didn't
wear the uniform my senior year in high school. And I don't know if I should be embarrassed at the fact
that I really never got caught. [Laughs] In fact, I got complimented by some of the nuns. You know, "Nice
dress, sweetie." It was never -- and I think I did that primarily out of the oblique thinking, "Okay, I'm a
teenager; I need to rebel in some way. How do I do it?" And not really being enthusiastic about
rebellion, but figuring out it's a rite -- thinking, "It's a rite of passage all teenagers do.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right, you have to do something.
>> Michelle Montelongo: What should mine be? Hey. Let's do it, the uniform."
>> Hannah DeVous: Let me wear some A-line dresses, it's a school.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly; they were A-line skirts. And I always tease my mother, though,
because I blame her for it. My freshman year she didn't like how uniform skirts fit. So she actually took
me a seamstress so that they could have a more flattering fit. And she had them made into A-line style
so when I would sit, they wouldn't bunch up. And as the years progressed in high school, it was, "Well, if
I could make this adjustment to make it look better, maybe I can make this adjustment." So by the time
it was senior year, I had jettisoned the whole uniform completely, but gradually within the four years in
high school. And then I went to college. And it wasn't until -- well when I was in college just the idea of,
"Oh my gosh, what do I wear?"
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes. It's kind of overwhelming when you grow up—when you wear a uniform.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes. I mean --
>> Hannah DeVous: And you have all of these choices at your fingertips, and you don't know what to
wear.
>> Michelle Montelongo: You know, we had formal dress day. And I found it easy on the weekends in
high school because they're weekends. But on formal dress day, though, it was, you're going to chapel.
So there were still rules within that of what you could wear. And in going to college it was, you know,
"What do I do? How do I dress," because I went to -- it was my first experience attending a public entity.
And I didn't fully understand what that meant until I was in line to buy books. Because when I was
growing up, private school you have to pay for tuition, you have to pay for your books, you have to pay
for your uniform when you do decide to wear it. And --
>> Hannah DeVous: And then your mom has to pay for alterations.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly. I don't know if my father knows about that. And my mom would make
it a practice to have me ask my father for the tuition check. And it was an interesting exchange, and
nonverbal exchange. And he knew I was about to ask for that tuition check when he'd seen me walking
towards him. And the expression that would come over his face wasn't a pleasing one. But at the same
time, it wasn't one of anger, either. It was just -- I can't even describe it. But I'd walk up to him, and you
know, "Papa, I need the check for school." He'd write me the check, he'd hand it over, grumble a few
things. And I'd stand there and say, "Well, I also need to buy books," which he knew because we would
go through this --
>> Hannah DeVous: Every year.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Every year. [Sighs] He'd have a deep sigh. He'd give me some money and he'd
look at me and say, "Make sure you buy used books." [Laughter] And --
>> Hannah DeVous: So did you buy used books your first year of college?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Well, yeah, I did. And luckily -- but this time when I started going to college it
was different. I walked up to him to ask him for the tuition check. He asked me for how much. I told him.
And when I told him, I saw what had at best could be described as a look of relief in his eyes. And he led
out a sigh, wrote the check, and without any prompting, gave me money for books without -- smiled and
said, "Do you need money for books?" Gave me the money, didn't even say, "Buy used books." He was
just almost happy. And I had never seen that expression in relation to money with my father. And when I
was in line to purchase books, I suddenly realized this is the difference of a public and private education.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It was because it cost less to go to a public school, to college than it costs to
attend my high school, than it did to attend my grade school. And upon realizing that then the daunting
sensation of, "So about 30% of this is being paid for by taxpayers."
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And it went back to being that five-year-old of, "So other people are affecting
my life and I'm affecting other people's monetary status." And realizing, "Okay; once I get into this
workforce thing and figure out what I want to do for a living, I have to give back to the university in
some way." And that's what started -- that was one of the things that started me in mentoring, was
giving back to the taxpayers.
>> Hannah DeVous: And those that come after you.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes.
>> Hannah DeVous: Those little interpreters that come after you.
>> Michelle Montelongo: [Laughs] They're never little.
>> Hannah DeVous: They are not; no. Let's talk about—let’s talk about the ADA, American Disabilities
Act.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Yes.
>> Hannah DeVous: That was passed in 1990, right around the time you started interpreting.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Well, I was still taking classes.
>> Hannah DeVous: When you were still taking classes; yeah. So do you notice a change? Did that
suddenly validate your profession more? The profession.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It --I recall thinking -- because I know I was taking courses at the time. And at
the same time I was also volunteering at a deaf agency.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And when it passed, getting clarification because it's something -- the
employment aspect of it is similar to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And so figuring out those things, But I think initially there was the general
assumption of, "Okay; so now everyone will be equal. Now everyone will see deaf, as you know, as
equals, and it won't -- there won't be as many barriers." Without thinking of, "Okay; doesn't mean the
mindset's there."
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And living in the Central Valley, it was a little bit -- I can't say different because
I only had -- up until then I'd only lived in the Central Valley. So I don't know what it was like in
comparison to other cities and other states. I just recall the first time I started interpreting with --
outside of the interpreting -- and outside of the confines of a deaf agency when I was on my own going
to different universities and so forth, being shocked back then -- you know, back in my day, that there
wasn't the regulations in regards to who can interpret.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: So I didn't have a performance exam. It was, "Oh, you interpret?" And when I
was hired by a place, realizing a lot of the other interpreters were hired only because they said they had
taken a couple of sign language classes. And I think that's what started the perceived ultra-professional.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And I always say -- because it's always a matter of perspective, it's all relative
to the next person, you know, when you have people that are just taking sign language courses, and
you're placing them in roles of interpreter.
>> Hannah DeVous: Not the same.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It's not the same as when you have someone who's studying and learning
trying to become an interpreter and is talking to other interpreters about it, and approaches it in a
professional manner. In comparison, yes, it does look ultra-professional. I think it was, you know, you
had to deal sometimes with the mindset of -- it -- but it was a little bit of more of a dilemma in the
respect that you're an interpreter. So I'm an interpreter. I have the code of conduct. And at times,
interpreting some things that are pretty grizzly, in regards to people not seeing deaf equally as you see
deaf.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And not being able to do anything about it. And you don't want it to taint your
view of humanity. And you want to keep that positive perspective on it. And I think it's what helped me
become a good independent contractor when I have my contracts—when I have contracts, because I
can approach these issues at the negotiating table, of pre-consulting before I interpret to dispel any
misnomers.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: But it makes -- I think also because I studied a lot of history, it was easy for me
to see deaf as yet another culture.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Another group of people. And so it's difficult for me to see people's
perspective of it as a pathologist, especially in the '90s. And so I saw -- when I would see that, I would
see also how it would parallel against other cultures being oppressed, other cultures experiencing
similar things.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Better now, though.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah; somewhat. It's changed a lot I think.
>> Michelle Montelongo: I think so. And it's still changing. And I always say -- I think -- it's funny because
we have the moratorium --
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: On the NIC. And everyone -- many, not everyone, many people were up –
>> Unidentified speaker: [Inaudible]
>> Michelle Montelongo: National Interpreting Certification, that was -- there was a moratorium that
IRD, Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, had implemented for an indefinite period. And it caused quite
a stir with many interpreters. And yet I didn't see it that way. And I think because -- I come from -- I've
always viewed it as just one of many professions.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: I've always had a view of it as a profession. I've always had a view of it as in
comparison to other businesses as well. I just saw it as, "Well, it was bound to happen in the respect
that we're still new. When you look at the legal profession, when you look at the medical profession,
you're looking at -- the teaching profession, hundreds of years of a profession that has evolved into what
it is now. You know, it's no longer you go for medical necessities in a barber shop.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And nor has it been that way for quite a while, but years ago, that was the
case. Years ago, ailments were connected to evil spirits.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And it's not the case. And as an interpreting profession, we've only been
around since -- professionally on paper since the '60s.
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes.
>> Michelle Montelongo: So in essence, we're still teenagers. We're still figuring out our identity. We're
still molding to who we are. The interpreters we are now, the roles that we have now, may very well
possibly change 20 years from now. They're going to differ especially in conjunction with the
advancements of technology.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And so –
>> Hannah DeVous: So let's talk about your family.
>> Michelle Montelongo: My family?
>> Hannah DeVous: Let's talk about your mom and your dad. And tell me the story of your mom telling
you to pack a specific type of clothing when you interpret, overnight conferences.
>> Michelle Montelongo: [Laughs] She always makes -- she's very concerned that I look tidy. And so my
favorite story to tell is one time when I was going back East to interpret a -- it started with this and then
thereafter spilled over. But I was going back East to interpret. And she and I were talking on the phone
and I was telling her, "You know, I have to, you know, throw in a bunch of dark things -- clothes."
Because as interpreters, we're always in dark clothes—
>> Hanna DeVous: Solid. Solid color.
>> Michelle Montelongo: --always ready—always ready for a funeral, always in black. And she asked me,
"Well, Michelle, are you going to pack a cocktail dress, like a little evening dress?" And I said, "No, I'm
interpreting." And her response was, "Well, you never know what can happen. You never know what
can happen." I don't know how she thinks a cocktail party would suddenly evolve but --
>> Hannah DeVous: You never know.
>> Michelle Montelongo: You never know; yeah.
>> Hannah DeVous: She’s always prepared, that one.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And so I've always been prepared --
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: When I pack. But my parents I think have -- I know have had a significant
impact on my life in how I handle interpreting business practices. I learned quite a bit from my father
who had his own business. And so --
>> Hannah DeVous: And he did, what did he do again?
>> Michelle Montelongo: He was a distributor of Mexican food products, and --
>> Hannah DeVous: In the Central Valley?
>> Michelle Montelongo: In the Central Valley from -- and very hard-working, you know, in order to get
there. He came from humble beginnings. And so I recall hearing this story of him working multiple jobs --
>> Hannah DeVous: Yes.
>> Michelle Montelongo: In order to accomplish that. Growing up I'd see him negotiate with other
businesses. And that really helped me in the respect of negotiating with contracts, showing your
gratitude. With my mom, I would say my love of literature, especially poetry. My granny, her mother,
loved poetry and could listen to a song or a poem and one time and be able to recount it. Had a keen
memory. Yes, yes. And since she spoke Spanish, she would gather my mom and her siblings and recite
poetry to them and do some extemporaneously. And my mom went to private school as well. In fact, I
attended the same high school that my mom did, and my aunts and uncles on my maternal side of the
family. And she recalls –She'd always recount to me stories of having to memorize and recite the
Gettysburg Address to Christina Rossetti poems, to Shakespeare, and what the nuns would have her do.
And when you grow up with that, you grow up for a love of it. And it really -- it influenced me, her love
of Shakespeare. I think my brother and my sister and I will have, you know, the complete works of
Shakespeare. And we each have our own favorite Shakespeare plays. [Laughs] And it transferred into
even how I even mentor, always making sure there's a unit in there of poetry, of literature, and realizing
literature is strongly-connected with our fluency of the English language.
>> Hannah DeVous: Absolutely, yeah.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Because of the play on words.
>> Hannah DeVous: Mm-hmm.
>> Michelle Montelongo: And yeah.
>> Hannah DeVous: And you never know when that's going to pop up.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Definitely. You know, and I'll have a student in front of me who will say, you
know, "Oh, I'll never interpret Shakespeare. I'll never -- you know, I don't have to worry about that." And
I often tell them, "Well, do you want to interpret K through 12 because California State Standard,
freshman year "Romeo and Juliet". But you also don't -- you know, the play on words doesn't cease at -with K through 12.
>> Hannah DeVous: Right.
>> Michelle Montelongo: It can be at, you know, the OSHA video, you will -- things that you never expect
to visit you'll be interpreting. First --
>> Hannah DeVous: Or that professor who talks in idioms for the entire --
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly.
>> Hannah DeVous: Fifty minutes of their class.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Exactly.
>> Hannah DeVous: Which is, you know, most interpreters cringe at those idioms, those play on words,
cause they are just a—If you don't have a vast understanding of the English language then you have no
idea what's being said.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Well, even in something -- you know, if you're looking at your first day of work,
I have to watch the—series of videos. No matter where you work, there's that -- you know, different
types of videos you have to do for orientation. And some of them they start off with a song. And it's,
"Okay; so now I have to interpret a song I never --" you know. And it's trying to relay that to the
interpreting student that out there you have to learn so much more than what you think. Things aren't
as they seem.
>> Hannah DeVous: So if you could tell that four-year-old little girl in that living room of your uncle's
house one amazing thing that would happen in her life, what would -- would you tell her --
>> Michelle Montelongo: What would I --
>> Hannah DeVous: Would you tell her to change anything? Would you tell her to just keep doing what
she did?
>> Michelle Montelongo: I would say, "Don't worry about feeling like an anomaly—It's going to work
out." Thank you for nominating me, Hannah.
>> Hannah DeVous: [Laughs] You're welcome.
>> Unidentified speaker: Can I ask you a couple of questions before you --
>> Michelle Montelongo: Sure.
>> Unidentified speaker: I just wanted to ask. Why did you choose to go into interpreting? And what do
you love about it?
>> Michelle Montelongo: Okay. Why did I choose to go into interpreting? Initially, you know, I had never
thought about interpreting one bit. And I needed a foreign language to take and I found out through the
community college, it was four units as opposed to if I took it at the university, it was three. So initially,
there were opportunistic reasons to take it. And it was to gain more college credit. When I started taking
-- I had a phenomenal ASL 1 instructor. She didn't teach us sign the first week of school. We just learned
non-manual markers. And non-manual markers are the facial linguistic markers that play into the syntax
of the language. But when you're taking ASL 1, you don't know that. You're just wondering why are you
making these mouth movements? Why are you making these eye squints? So she was, as I said, very
phenomenal. Susie Call [phonetic] was her name. And she no longer lives in Fresno. But she also made
us videotape ourselves weekly. So I got used to seeing myself bungle. I got used to not taking myself so
seriously in that context knowing, "I'm an ASL 1 student, I'm going to make mistakes." Thoroughly
enjoyed it. And at one point, we had an interpreter. It's really odd because I can't recall who that
interpreter was. It wasn't any of the usual suspects of our valley. But it was someone who came in and
they were telling us what it was like to be a sign language interpreter. And at that time the, you know,
paradigm was, "It's as if you're not even there, you're just facilitating the information." Well, for
someone who is painfully shy, I thought, you know, "This is great. Sign me up. And so I decided I'm going
to be an interpreter. And I started taking all the sign language classes that were offered. And at that
time, there was no interpreter training program in the valley. But they had started a pilot one through
Global Educational System. And about a year and a half into that, I realized that phrase that's like you're
not even there. That was a septifragal ploy to get more people involved in the interpreting field.
>> Hannah DeVous: Everyone sees the interpreter.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Everyone sees the interpreter. Everyone notices and makes a comment about
the interpreter. And so it was a matter of do I switch and all of this year and a half plus goes to waste
and just had been done in vain, or do I jettison the shyness? And my thought process was, "Well you
know, by the time I'm 25 or 30, I've always wanted to overcome it. I'll have to overcome it someway, so
stick to it." And then I love about -- you know, I love the profession. If I were told I couldn't be an
interpreter anymore –I would be devastated. But I still would have a sense of self, because it doesn't
define me. My assignments don't define me. And I think that's one of the other reasons I mentor, is to
help students realize as much, "As you love it, if you let it define you, you're going to be up against a
wall." I love it in the respect of I love interacting with different cultures. I love the linguistic process of it
in the mental stimulation. I love and I'm always humbled by the fact when a deaf individual requests me
or when I'm requested by someone to interpret. It's very humbling because there's a sense of trust. And
to be an interpreter is --Have you ever heard -- did you ever hear the storywriter named Laurie Colwin?
She wrote a lot for The New Yorker in the 1980s and '90s. She has since passed. Nothing in relation to
interpreting; but the title of one of her books was called, "Lone Pilgrim", a collection of short stories. But
I've always coincided that phrase "lone pilgrim" with what it's like to be an interpreter, because you
have to fit in and blend in to every situation but still maintain your anomaly, still be able to let the
communication there. And going back to what the woman said, the interpreter said, "When it really
works when everyone knows what the role of the interpreter is, it's like you're not even there." And it's
really great, not in the sense of you lose yourself, but in the sense of everyone's focused on who they
should be.
>> Hannah DeVous: Hmm.
>> Unidentified speaker: Thank you.
>> Michelle Montelongo: Thank you.
>> Hannah DeVous: Thank you.