This article examines developments surrounding the establishment of the school for the deaf in Madrid in the 19th century and the role played by Roberto Prádez, Spain's first deaf teacher of the deaf, during the school's first three decades of existence. Although he has been neglected historically, Prádez is a founding father of deaf education, a heroic figure who contributed crucially to the establishment and operation of Spain's first state-sponsored school. This study underscores the need to reexamine the historical record to recover Spanish deaf history.