formacion politica: political education or political formation?

I got to thinking about this term because CISPES is doing a fantastic tour of the US with the compas from Equipo Maiz, who are offering political formation sessions.

We don't really use the term political formation in English. You could use political education or training or workshop - but I would argue for importing political formation and explaining the broader meaning of the term in Spanish if and when you have the chance. Formation points to so much more than what we think of as education, described well here. I think it comes out of liberation theology, though I'm not sure of that. Simas argues here that "Political formation could be understood as an education of the mind, body and spirit to be able to fully engage in collective movement work."

This broader take is more important now than ever in the United States - as is the ejemplo and lessons of our compas who have resisted dictatorships across the Americas for decades!

(photo is a morning 'mistica' at an MST training) 

Curious to hear if you think it works to import this term - please comment!

paño de agua tibia: piecemeal measure

Obviously this is not a literal translation, but I think it is a far more accurate one for most uses of this term. I got this rendition from the great article:

 

Alves, J. A. (2019). “Esa paz blanca, esa paz de muerte”: Peacetime, Wartime, and Black Impossible Chronos in Postconflict Colombia. The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, 24(3), 653-671. https://doi.org/10.1111/jlca.12424

cimarrones: maroons

Cimarrones were historically freedom seekers - that is to say, fugitives from slavery. Notice the difference between framing it this way and the old term of 'escaped slaves.' They were people who were enslaved. This emphasizes their humanity, over calling them slaves. I got to thinking about these changes in terminology thanks an article by Zavala Guillen. As she puts it:

“In recent decades, Maroonness has been reclaimed by communities of descendants of fugitives from slavery and other Afro-descendant groups, primarily in rural settings, to obtain land rights, for example, in Brazil (Bledsoe, 2017; De La Torre, 2013). Black activists have also identified as Maroons when they have performed ideological escapes from oppression, such as capitalism, patriarchy and European knowledge systems” (Zavala Guillen, p. 1)

Zavala Guillen, Ana Laura. “Feeling/Thinking the Archive: Participatory Mapping Marronage.” Area Accessed June 12, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12869.  [online early]

a swarm: un enjambre

to swarm is enjambrar

so for swarm the state how about enjambremos el estado?

image, of course, is from the fabulous beehive collective
 

Their amazing art that tells stories of the struggle is available at beehivecollective.org.

comunitario is not communitarian, another false cognate to avoid

I have blogged here about many dangerous false cognates related to social change, such as municipio and judicialización and proyectos productivos and plataforma (search false cognate in the search bar for many more, I've been at this for a while).

Comunitario is another. In English communitarian, Webster says, means of or relating to social organization in small cooperative partially collectivist communities. Sometimes this might be what comunitario refers to - but at least in Colombia it often seems to just mean community, or community based.

Beyond tired

 "! تعبنا, تعبنا, I hear over and over again, when watching Gaza in Arabic. It could be rendered in English as simply we are tired, we are tired, but a more accurate translation would be, we have come to the limits of ourselves, we are empty, exhaustion consumes us. تعبنا, تعبنا, Gazans repeat, speaking in plural even when interviewed alone. As miraculous as Palestinian sumud may be, it is not limitless. Our endurance should be a means, not an end. What Gaza longs for—deserves—is justice, liberation, and life."

From this gorgeous essay on the work of the witness, which also addresses the translation conundrum of the word martyr. I can't recommend this essay enough.