Fernando Camacho Servin
Newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, August 14, 2022, p. 8
When Roberto Ramírez entered elementary school, he had a revelation: the hand that he felt was the most capable of interacting with the world was the wrong one
. At least that’s how one of his teachers saw it, who forbade him to use his left hand and forced him to use his right hand.
“One of the teachers – a very old person – didn’t like that I was left-handed and couldn’t sit on my desk. He put a lot of pressure on me, until I started writing with my right hand and, over the years, I developed the skill very well. Until now I do it like this, because I’ve gotten used to it, “says the engineer today.
Like Roberto, about 10 percent of the world’s population is left-handed, a condition that has historically been fraught with myths and prejudices, and for which to date there is still no easy access to some of the tools that are needed in life. everyday.
In order to make the problems of this community visible, for 45 years on August 13 the International Left-handed Day has been celebrated, as happened yesterday.
neither more nor less intelligent
Now, when he tells it, it makes him laugh, but Roberto’s path to break through in a world of right-handers was not without difficulties.
At school there were no hits or rules, but the teachers did pressure me when I was little. In addition, all the desks were for right-handers and the poor left-handed youngsters had to settle on pallets for right-handers.
recalls in conversation with the day.
Despite his elderly primary school teacher, Roberto continued to use his left hand to use a hammer or grab a glass, or his left leg to kick the ball into the balls. little shells. She assumed it as a trait that made him feel more original
.
Their vocation
left-handedness did not disappear, but rather was supplemented by the use of the right, in a process that, he says, has taught him to be more intuitive and gave him some qualities of intellectual development different from those of the rest of my classmates
.
Hugo Sánchez Castillo, professor at the Faculty of Psychology at UNAM and head of the neuropsychopharmacology laboratory at the same university, stressed that, although left-handedness has been a condition surrounded by myths, in reality there is no evidence that this population is more or less intelligent or skillful than the right hand in any respect, nor that arise
for some particular reason.
In the central nervous system there are lateralized functions. For example, language is preferentially processed in the left hemisphere of the brain, and spatial ability in the right, but they are not exclusive. If any lateralized function is impaired, the brain allows the other hemisphere to participate appropriately
he indicated.
After emphasizing that being left-handed is not a trait that is necessarily inherited, the specialist considered that, although this condition is no longer a reason for harassment, as it was years ago, there is still no understanding or empathy with those who present it.
“It is a natural condition with which you can do the same as a right-hander. The rest are myths that unfortunately detract from these people, who still suffer silent discrimination, because the ‘normal’ thing is that there are no materials or tools for them.”
This shortage of inputs is still very present in the country. Although there used to be a couple of specialized stores in Mexico City, today both are closed, and the items that can be found on the Internet are more expensive; for example, left-handed scissors can cost from 200 to 700 pesos, while a notebook, for the simple fact of having the spiral on the right side, costs more than 1,200 pesos.
