Fame follows family with child's TV role

So many in Tucson remember the extraordinary teenager, Carlos Valencia, whose four-year battle with leukemia captivated the city and inspired the largest bone-marrow-donor drives ever held here.

On Sunday night, Carlos' 9-year-old cousin (second cousin, to be precise), Noah, will star in a prime-time Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie titled "Sweet Nothing in My Ear," along with Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin and Golden Globe nominee Jeff Daniels.

The film is earning solid praise for its sensitive and accurate portrayal of the world of the profoundly deaf and the controversy about whether they should embrace technology that can allow them to hear.

Unbeknown to most of us who followed Carlos Valencia's heartbreaking battle with leukemia, he comes from a family plagued also by deafness, passed down through the paternal side of the Valencia family.

Although Carlos could hear, his uncles, aunts, cousins and now second cousins, including Noah, all have been born deaf.

That two Valencia children — born to unassuming families of modest means, with deep roots in Tucson — would be catapulted into the public spotlight to bring understanding to critical medical issues somewhat astounds the family.

"You kind of wonder if this is a destiny in some way," said Carlos' father, Ford Valencia, who was by his son's side through every step of his fight.

"This all came out of nowhere — it is nothing the family ever sought out. Just something about Carlos, and now Noah, that they would so unexpectedly play such a role to make these public issues."

A shy, spiritual child of 12 when leukemia first struck him, Carlos Valencia somehow developed an extraordinary eloquence during his painful battle that enabled him to bring no less than 6,000 new donors into the national bone-marrow registry, many of them much-needed Hispanics. Tragically, no matching donor was found to save Carlos' own life. He died at age 16 in 2004.

Little Noah — who was very close to his older cousin Carlos, sharing may holidays and vacations with him — was simply plucked out of his fourth-grade class at the California School for the Deaf, in Riverside, by the film's casting director, attracted by the adorable boy's blond curls and considerable charm.

In the CBS movie, Noah plays Adam Miller, the deaf child of Matlin, his deaf mother, and Daniels, his hearing father. The family plays out the huge controversy surrounding cochlear implants that divides the deaf and hearing communities.

The surgically implanted electronic device replaces damaged inner ear structures that cause most forms of deafness. The cochlear implant is largely shunned by the deaf, who embrace their culture of deafness and especially their language, American Sign Language.

Noah's entire family — his deaf mother, father and brother, and Noah himself — also reject the technology, Ford Valencia said.

"The impression I get is they feel they are better off not hearing," said Valencia, whose deaf brother, Manuel, is Noah's grandfather. Born in Tucson, Manuel attended the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind here. Five of his children, including Noah's father, Jeremias Valencia, are deaf.

"They feel very comfortable that they all sign, and they don't want to step outside of that culture," Ford Valencia said. "And being deaf did not stop them in life — they all have very independent, successful lives. They went to Gallaudet (University, for the deaf) and have good jobs. They are doing fine."

Noah got a little homesick during the filming, which kept him in Los Angeles during the Thanksgiving holiday his family usually shares with its Tucson relatives, Ford Valencia said.

"That and having to eat 40 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches during 40 takes of one scene — he hated that," Ford Valencia said. "Otherwise, I think he had a great time."

Just days before the showing of "Sweet Nothing in My Ear," the movie is receiving excellent reviews.

"The best Hallmark Hall of Fame production in more than a year," wrote the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, saying it tackles the subject of deafness "in a thought-provoking and moving way."

Another review quotes actor Daniels saying of Noah's first movie role: "That kid is a wonderful actor; he was so prepared. … He was a pro."

To see the movie

The CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame movie titled "Sweet Nothing in My Ear" — starring Noah Valencia, cousin of Carlos Valencia — will air Sunday from 8 to 10 p.m. on KOLD-TV, Channel 13.