free online interpreter training

Cross Cultural Communications Seeks Beta Testers for Online Training

CCC is recruiting beta testers for one or more of their 10 6-hour online modules. These modules make up THE COMMUNITY INTERPRETER Online, and each module comes with four 90-minute lessons.

Beta testing will be available in May 2013. They are particularly keen on recruiting testers OUTSIDE THE US. This program is intended for community interpreters around the world.

The topic areas of the 6-hour modules are as follows:

THE COMMUNITY INTERPRETER Online: the 40-hour program

(designed for community interpreters in general and medical interpreters in particular)

• Overview of Community Interpreting (including an Introduction to Medical Interpreting)
• Ethics
• Protocols
• Skills
• Intervention and Mediation
• Cultural Mediation
• Standards of Practice (this module includes a two-hour final assessment)

The 60-hour program

This longer program, designed especially for medical interpreters, includes all the modules above and three additional modules:

• Medical Terminology for Interpreters (basic)
• Medical Terminology for Interpreters (advanced)
• Introduction to Legal Interpreting for Medical Interpreters

If you are interested in becoming a beta tester for THE COMMUNITY INTERPRETER Online, please contact Michelle Gallagher at +1 410-312-5599or ccc2@cultureandlanguage.net.

carbon sink: sumidero de carbono

As in, pay for your climate sins with a likely to be bogus offset indulgence.  Need I say palm oil plantations? If you don't know what I mean, read carbon sinks 101 over at sinkswatch.

stalemate: punto muerto

lo que tenemos en Colombia, y la razon por la cual hay negociaciones de paz.

Como lo dice IPC: 

"Gobierno e insurgencia estarían llegando al aserto de que con la guerra se está en un punto muerto: la escalada de la seguridad democrática dio sus frutos pero la promesa de la derrota no llegó y la guerrilla sintió, como nunca, no sólo las  importantes derrotas militares sino el profundo desprestigio político, lo cual le podría haber obligado a reconsiderar su estrategia y táctica. Haber firmado el Acuerdo antes aludido, implica para las FARC admitir que su proyecto político se tramita dentro del marco de la lucha política legal y no con las armas."

autonomia alimentaria

autonomia alimentaria: food autonomy

As Arturo Escobar puts it "In Colombia for instance, movements prefer to use autonomia alimentaria (food autonomy) which is somewhat different to food sovereignty.  Food sovereignty tends to put the emphasis on the national level, so a county might say we basically produce food for the population blah blah blah, that’s not good enough. There has to be food autonomy locally, regionally, nationally." (from this great interview with Arturo about alternatives to development)

greenwashing (rightswashing, causewashing ...)

greenwashing: lavado verde (as in, forget the other horrible things we do, we just put a figleaf of environmentalism over it all by saying it´s printed on recycled paper)

pinkwashing: lavado rosa (gay rights figleaf - think Israel)

rightwashing: lavado con derechos (usually refers to human rights, less common)

causewashing: lavado con causa (as in the pampers campaign where you buy one pack of disposable diapers and pampers gives a tiny donation to UNICEF for a vaccine)

el aquelarre

aquelarre: coven

a term being reclaimed by feminists and used in Spanish to describe not just women who call themselves witches but more widely groups of women who get together to conspire for change.  in English listeneers might get the impression that it´s actually a group of neo-pagans who engage in rituals, but since it´s a term being reclaimed, it seems worth keeping the term and perhaps explaining that. or does any reader have a better suggestion?

the wikipedia entry in Spanish has a fascinating etymology - in spanish it can mean both the coven and where the coven meets, but it seems to be more widely just to describe the group. 

yet again thanks to my fabulous friend Andrea for this one.

book on activist translation

There is a book out about translation and social change, Translation, Resistance, Activism.  It came out in 2010 but I just discovered it, and haven't seen it yet, since I'm living in Bogotá at the moment.  I'm looking forward to it - particularly the last chapter, "the space and time of activist translation."  Has anyone out there read it? Any chance any of it is available digitally?

Here is the official blurb:

More than merely linguistic transposition, translation is a vector of power, resistance, rebellion, and even revolution. Exploring these facets of the ideology of translation, the contributors to this volume focus on the agency of translators and their activism. Spanning two centuries and reaching across the globe, the essays examine the varied activist strategies of key translators and translation movements. From silence to radical manipulation of texts, translation strategies are instrumental in significant historical interventions and cultural change. Translation plays a pivotal role in ideological dialogue and struggle, including resistance to oppression and cultural straitjackets of all types, from sexual puritanism to military dictatorships. Situated in their own space, time, history, and political contexts, translators promote ideological agendas by creating new cultural narratives, pragmatically adjusting tactics so as to maximize the social and political impact. The essays in this volume explore ways to read translations as records of cultural contestation and ideological struggle; as means of fighting censorship, physical coercion, cultural repression, and political dominance; and as texts that foster a wide variety of goals from cultural nationalism to armed confrontation. Translations are set in relief as central cultural documents rather than derivative, peripheral, or marginalized productions. They are seen as forms of ethical, political, and ideological activity rather than as mere communicative transactions or creative literary exercises. The contributors demonstrate that engaged and activist translations are performative acts within broader political and ideological contexts. The essays detail the initiative, resourcefulness, and courage of individual translators, whose willingness to put themselves on the line for social change can sometimes move the world. In addition to Maria Tymoczko, contributors include Pua'ala'okalani D. Aiu, Brian James Baer, Mona Baker, Paul F. Bandia, Georges L. Bastin, Nitsa Ben-Ari, angela Campo, Antonia Carcelen-Estrada, alvaro Echeverri, Denise Merkle, John Milton, and Else R.P. Vieira.

judicialización

judicialización/ montaje judicial = malicious prosecution on trumped up charges

These have been increasingly used against human rights defenders in Colombia in the past few years.  The most notable case is that of David Ravelo, as described in the letter below.

North American Committee for the Defense of David Ravelo
10 de Enero 2013
                             

                                                                            Sr. Eduardo Montealegre,
Fiscal General de Colombia, Fiscalía General,               

Bogotá, Colombia,


Estimado Sr. Montealegre,
We are members of a delegation of U.S, Canadian, and German citizens who visited
Colombiafor a week beginning November 25, 2012. Although our fundamental concern
in regard to your country is the war and terrible suffering there, our visit was
aimed at solidarity with David Ravelo, (cédula de ciudadanía 13.887.558),
currently held in La Picota prison in Bogota. Mr. Ravelo was convicted December
11, 2012of aggravated homicide in the case of Barrancabermejamayoral candidate
David Nuñez Cala, killed in 1991. He was sentenced to 18 years, three months in
prison.
Prompting this letter is our realization, indeed our certainty, that the
prosecution and judicial processes that led to Mr. Ravelo’s conviction do not
meet internationally recognized standards of fairness and justice. We base our
view on information gained before, during, and following our visit to Colombia.
Our reasoning is as follows:
1.       Mr. Ravelo was denied due judicial process. Prior to his conviction he
had already spent over two years in prison. At his trial there was no
opportunity for evidence on his behalf to be presented; 30 defense witnesses
were prevented from testifying.

2.       Testimony provided by two prosecution witnesses was self-serving. They
were two former paramilitary leaders convicted of massacres. The testimony they
offered against David Ravelo facilitated reductions of their sentences under
terms of Law 975, Law of Justice and Peace. The sentence of one of them, Mario
Jaimes Mejía, alias “El Panadero,” was reduced from 40 to no more than eight
years.  Another witness at Mr. Ravelo’s trial testified that the two principal
prosecution witnesses had tried to bribe him.


3.       We suspect that the principal motivation for prosecuting and convicting
David Ravelo was political retribution. Mr. Ravelo, a leader of the National
Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE, by its initials in Spanish), the
Regional Corporation for Defense of Human Rights (CREDHOS), and other human
rights organizations, is acknowledged and respected for his commitment to
defending human rights in the Barrancabermejaregion. In fact, his efforts
brought public attention to paramilitaries, police, and members of the national
army suspected of human rights abuses and thereby contributed to justice being
applied. Mario Jaimes Mejía had been convicted in part because of David Ravelo’s
efforts. Ravelo took the lead in publicizing ties between ex - President Alvaro
Uribe and paramilitary groups.


4.       The prosecutor in Mr. Ravelo’s case was WilliamPacheco Granados who had
served as police lieutenant in Armeniain 1992. He was dismissed from that post
because the year before he helped arrange for Guillermo Hurtado Parra’s forced
disappearance. Under Colombian law (Article 76 of Decree 261/2000), that crime
permanently disqualifies him from holding any public office, including, of
course, that of public prosecutor. We hold that David Ravelo’s conviction is
invalid because of this and other judicial and prosecutorial irregularities.


5.       Members of David Ravelo’s family have received multiple death threats
and been intimidated in other ways. His associates in the CREDHOS organization
have also been threatened.


6.       David Ravelo’s case is worrying on other accounts. The attorney general
in Barrancabermejain April 2009 determined not to prosecute David Ravelo. In
response, jurisdiction in his case was re-assigned to the national Attorney
General in Bogotawhere prosecution was resumed. Initial charges against Ravelo
of “rebellion” were dropped on discovery that in 1995 he had been absolved of
that charge (after two years in prison) and that reinstatement was impossible.
Conveniently enough, the charge against David Ravelo switched to “aggravated
homicide.” Six months elapsed between the end of David Ravelo’s trial
proceedings in May, 2012 and public notice of his conviction. Almost four weeks
elapsed between November 16, 2012, the date officially assigned to his
conviction, and December 11, 2012, the date when Mr. Ravelo and his legal
defenders officially learned of his conviction.


7.       We would remind your office that Colombia’s Constitutional Courtunder
its decision T-590/98 has ruled that because defenders of human rights are
vulnerable to attacks and abuse within the national context, the state must
assume responsibility for protecting them.

8.       We are encouraged by international calls for justice in David Ravelo’s
case.


·         Since 2000, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission has extended
“precautionary measures” for the protection of members of CREDHOS and its
directors, including David Ravelo.


·         In November, 2010 British Parliamentarians called for his release from
prison.


·         In March 2011, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the
Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Gabriela Knaul, and the Special Rapporteur
on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, issued a joint
communication to the Colombian Government expressing their concern that
“criminalization of David Ravelo occurs in the context of increasing
prosecutions against human rights defenders in Colombia”.


·         Irish solidarity activists visited Ravelo in prison in November, 2012.
One of them, Northern Ireland Assembly member John McCallister, commented that,
“David Ravelo is an admirable man, dedicated to the defense of human rights. I
am horrified that a human rights defender can be convicted in a case led by a
prosecutor implicated in crimes against humanity.” McAllister joined 30 British
and Irish parliamentarians, lawyers, and labor leaders in issuing a statement
condemning David Rabelo’s conviction.

·         On 5 December 2012, the Inter- American Commission of Human Rights
condemned repression against human rights defenders in Colombiaincluding Mr.
Ravelo.


·         On December 10, 2012, 13 European human rights groups sent a
communicationto your office denouncing David Ravelo’s conviction.
http://www.fidh.org/Colombia-International-12579   Later that month 21 other
human rights, labor, and lawyers’ groups based mainly in the United Statesand
the United Kingdomsent a similar letter to your office.
http://www.colectivodeabogados.org/IMG/pdf/Carta_al_Fiscal_caso_David_Rabelo.pdf

·         On December 10, 2012, your office received a letter from 80 members of
the British Parliament who judged his conviction to be a “serious injustice and
violation of his human rights.” http://prensarural.org/spip/spip.php?article9850

Mr. Montealegre, in view of these considerations we urge upon your office a turn
toward fairness and justice in the case of David Ravelo Crespo. We will be
content with nothing less than Mr. Ravelo’s immediate liberation. Additionally,
our group demands that effective protection be provided for members of Mr.
Ravelo’s family and members of the CREDHOS human rights organization.  Lastly,
we urge that, in accordance with Colombian law,WilliamPacheco Granadosbe removed
from his position as prosecutor within Colombia’s judicial system.


With respect and in hopes that David Ravelo will receive justice, we are,

Sincerely yours,
Tim Bood   (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)
Mark Burton   (Denver, Colorado, USA)
John Lugo (New Haven, Connecticut, USA)
Jim Norris (Carson, California, USA)
Stan Smith (Chicago, Illinois, USA)
Joel Stangle  (Iphofen, Bavaria, Germany)
Kay Tillow (Louisville, Kentucky, USA)
Walter Tillow (Louisville, Kentucky, USA)
Tom Whitney (South Paris, Maine, USA)

Copies sent to:

María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar, Foreign Minister
Juan Manuel Santos Calderon, President of Colombia
Angelino Garzón, Vice President of Colombia
Volmar AntonioPérez Ortiz, Defensor of the People
Germán Vargas Lleras, Minister of Justice and Interior
María Paulina RiverosDueñas, Interior Ministry, Human Rights Program Dr.
Alejandro Ordoñez Maldonado, Procurador Generalde la Nación

Carlos Urrutia Valenzuela, Colombian Ambassador to United States
P. Michael McKinley, U. S. Ambassador to Colombia, 

training manuals for community, medical and legal interps

Cross- cultural communications has a series of manuals for different types of interpreting.  They just released a new workbook with exercises and role plays for legal interpreting.  I haven't seen it, but it looks worth checking out.

fracking

fracking = mineria por fracturación hidraulica
(and thereafter fracturación if doing simul)

As Mother Jones puts it, we are fracking our way to a toxic planet.

from inside the belly of the beast

"desde las entrañas del monstruo" is a phrase famously first used by Jose Martí and now often used by US activists working against US imperialism from inside the US.  in this image Martí has el pueblo en sus entrañas!

vivir bien vs. el buen vivir

living well vs living the good life (or living the high life if you want the distinction to be super clear)

This is a distinction frequently made by movements in Latin America.  Today I saw it oddly translated here, in an article that says,

"Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, called for a new age to begin December 21, 2012. Speaking at the United Nations in September, Morales said the date signals an end to individualism and capitalism and a turn toward the collective good. That's a common theme for Morales, who often speaks of 'vivir bien,' a phrase that can be translated as living well. 'Vivir bien' is often defined by the Andean nation's leaders as pursuing the collective good in balance with the Earth, and contrasted with 'living better,' which is seeking to amass wealth at the expense of the planet or other people 

 BUT there are other uses PLEASE SEE COMMENTS AND ADD TO THIS DISCUSSION! 

the most basic thing you need to know before interpreting

At this year's vigil to close the School of the Americas I helped to coordinate a fantastic team of professional interpreters who donated their services.  There were also several groups who preferred to have their own staff organizers interpret for folks, so I again had the chance to listen to activists interpret consecutive into English who have been thrown into interpreting with no training.  I totally get that groups want to control the message, and feel like their staff will have better rapport with the speaker, but I was reminded of two serious mistakes that untrained interpreters commonly make.

The first mistake comes off to me as a lack of respect for the speaker's voice.  These activists added things to what the speaker had said. Perhaps because they knew the details and thought it would make a more compelling story, or in one case the interpreter tried to express that he was speaking in his own voice as he added a campaign ask, but he didn't know third person rule.  Now really, it's not usually appropriate for the interpreter to add anything, even in this way, but if he HAD to, he could have said "the interpreter would like to add that ... (eg. this information is available in English at the website x)".  If the interpreter needs to ask for a repetition this should also be requested in third person (eg, the interpreter requests a repetition).

This leads me to the second common mistake I saw, which is slipping into third person for NOT that reason.  Most activists thrown into interpreting seem to know you're not supposed to say "he said, she said" - but still strangely fall back into it from time to time - particularly in the Q & A.  The reason this is like nails on the chalkboard to me is that it weakens the speaker's voice dramatically. 

Please, if you ever hear folks making these mistakes in social justice settings, take a minute to remind them that the best way to respect the speaker and amplify their voice is to not add to, omit from, or otherwise change the message of the speaker, and to use the first person unless they are referring to themselves, in which case to use "the interpreter".

(photo is of me interpreting on stage at the vigil for Martin Almada - thanks to my mom for making us fantastic red interpreter vests that made us easy to identify!)

intro shpiel about how the interpreting will work in social justice contexts

Here is a sample shpiel I made up for use this year at the workshops held as part of the vigil to close the School of the Americas.  This is for a workshop with simultaneous into English and consecutive into Spanish.  We did pull off a few two way simultaneous workshops (which require more headsets), and used a different shpiel for those.  After the vigil I was left feeling like this shpiel was particularly important for workshops where there was a lot of Q & A.  For short workshops with less Q and A and time constraints you could get away with just emphasizing the hand signals to the speaker beforehand. 

Intro shpiel 

(be sure your compa is interpreting simultaneously into Spanish as you give this)

---

Hi my name is _____, my compa _______ and I will be interpreting for this meeting. We will be doing interpreting simultaneously into Spanish, with headsets, and consecutively into English, out loud.  We are providing interpreting as much for those of you who are limited Spanish speakers as for those of you who are limited English speakers.  We are committed to making all of our spaces at the vigil more and more bilingual, because our movement stretches across the Americas.  The more bilingual our movement is, the stronger we are and the more meaningful our solidarity can be.

A successful bilingual environment depends on all of us, not just the interpreters.  You can help by keeping a few things in mind. We will do our best to interpret everything that is said without adding, deleting, or changing the message.  So we can interpret accurately it is important that everyone speaks loudly and at a moderate pace.  Please watch the interpreters; if we can’t hear you, this means speak up (both hands palm up, move hands up several times).  If you are speaking in English, and going too fast, this means slow down (both hands palms down, moving down towards the floor).  If we would like to ask you to pause for a few minutes we will make this hand movement (a time out T).  In that case please wait until we have finished and nod at you before continuing to speak.  If the interpreter is making hand signals and the speaker is not seeing them, please everyone help out by repeating the hand signal.  

When you are in discussion it essential that only one person speaks at a time and that everyone ensures that we leave a pause between speakers.  Simultaneous interpreting is always a few words behind, so please make sure that the interpreter has finished before the next person begins speaking, so that those listening to the simultaneous interpreting can fully participate.  When we interpret consecutively into English please look at speak directly to each other, as if the interpreter were not in the room.  

Any questions?
Thank you!

get trained on interpreting for torture and trauma survivors

The training is run by the organization The Voice of Love, and the training is called Healing Voices.  They are currently running their second training like this in Chicago, and have another one coming up in San Francisco Jan 7-11 all day every day for $500, scholarships available.  It comes with a 300 page manual they've gotten some star authors to work on.  You have to have at least 40 hours of other professional interpreter training to participate. 

For more information on the Healing Voices San Francisco Pilot, click here.

For more information about Voice of Love in general, click here.

animador

animador/a: organizer

as in, "no tenemos lideres, todos somos animadores"

I wouldn't always go the other direction with this term though - the term animador is used in some Latin American contexts and not in others. 

thoughts?

Spanish for Social Justice conversation practice group

If by chance you're a Spanish language learner in the Vancouver area, or know folks who are, you're in luck.  Nicole Benson of Esperanza Education is starting up a regular practice group, to complement the fantastic Spanish for Social Justice classes that she teaches.

If you're not in Vancouver - how about starting up something like this in your area? It would be a great fundraiser and community builder for solidarity groups.  Maybe half could go to the teacher and half to the organization? Nicole is open to talking to folks who want to do this elsewhere. 

el campo

the countryside?
a rural area?
the bush?
the hills?

ok, I don't think I've ever used the hills, but those different options in English have quite different registers, so I try to go with the one that fits the context. Any others out there folks like to use?

image by Rini Templeton, all of whose fabulous art is free for use at riniart.org

inaccurate machine translation plays a role in the US election

I can't resist reposting the article below from Think Progress.  I mean really, talk about a dumb use of machine translation. Don't let this happen to you or your friends! Make sure your compas know that it's just for getting the gist of things! Not for anything important! 

Obama ‘Foreign Donation Scandal,’ Hyped By Right-Wing, Based On Inaccurate Google Translation

By Josh Israel on Oct 10, 2012 at 3:00 pm

As ThinkProgress detailed Tuesday, right-wing and mainstream news sources have extensively misrepresented a new report by the conservative Government Accountability Institute (GAI), suggesting incorrectly that the report details widespread foreign money flowing to President Obama’s re-election campaign. A further review of the report finds that the sole example included of a foreign-national donor giving to the Obama campaign was, in fact, based on a translation error.
The GAI’s report, America the Vulnerable: Are Foreign and Fraudulent Online Campaign Contributions Influencing U.S. Elections? cited a Norwegian blog as an example of an apparent non-citizen claiming to have illegally contributed to a U.S. political campaign:

A Norwegian blogger posts a solicitation from the Obama campaign, including the link to the donate page. When another blogger opines that non-U.S. citizens cannot contribute because of American law, the blogger responds in Norwegian, “I have in practice given money to Obama, I had done it.”

The footnote for this claim links to a blogger named “Gaupefot.” His or her comment, in Norwegian, was:

Jeg mottar nok bare epost fra Obama. Pøvde å donere penger til John Kerry i 2004. Det gikk dessverre ikke. Forøvrig har ikke USA noe de skulle sagt på det området. De tar heller livet av utenlandske politikere. Pengedonasjoner blir for pingler slik de ser det. CIA har forøvrig gitt penger til Det norske arbeiderparti, og antakeligvis også til andre norske partier og politske grupperinger.
Hadde jeg i praksis kunne gitt penger til Obama hadde jeg gjort det.

The GAI report’s authors apparently relied on Google Translator for their translation of that final line. ThinkProgress confirmed with three Norwegian speakers, including a University of North Dakota professor of Norwegian language, that the quote actually means quite the opposite.
Gaupefot’s comment claims a failed 2004 attempt to donate to John Kerry’s campaign. The correct translation of the last line is, essentially, “If I actually could have given money to Obama, I would have done it.”
The GAI did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the report and on this glaring error. It is unclear how many of the other translations throughout the report report also relied on Google Translator — a literal translation service that is incapable of understanding nuance or context.
Despite a wide array of irresponsible headlines, it is now clear that the authors did not find a single example of a foreigner donating to the Obama re-election campaign.

oral flashcards!

Here's a cool way to grill yourself on new terminology suggested in a recent ATA chronicle:

Instead of the various flashcard apps, try recording yourself saying the terms you want to learn, with a space in between for you to say them to yourself in the target language.  You could do a set in one direction, then another in the other direction. 

I'm a more visual and kinesthetic learner, but if you're a more auditory learner, this might be just the trick.  Heck, your phone is probably already fancy enough to record you saying the 20 terms you're working on this week, but if you have an iphone and want to get really fancy, there's quick voice.  Haven't tried it, so feedback welcome!

disability terminology

Last week I posted a link to a queer terminology review, this week it's a link to this great article that goes over the do's and don'ts around terminology relating to people with disabilities.  For starters, please don't call folks 'the disabled', much less 'wheelchair bound'.  My favorite of the article? People can decide themselves if they are suffering.  If you don't know what that refers to - read up! 

As was last weeks, this link comes from the fabulous Andrea Parra.  Gracias bella!

queer terminology

Think you're good at LGBTQ terms?
Do you know what the difference is between a demisexual and a panromantic?
Even if you do, check out this page of fabulous posters and I promise you, there will be SOME term you've never heard of. 

Many thanks to Andrea Parra for the fabulous link

Occupying Language in NYC

The Committee on Globalization and Social Changeis putting on a very cool event:

Occupying Language

with Dario Azzellini and Marina Sitrin

Friday, September 21: 2:00 pm at the Free University of NYC at Madison Square Park and 7:30 pm at 16 Beaver Street (4th floor)

This is their shpeil about it:

Occupying Language is an open conversation. Through it, we invite you to join us to explore insurgent movements that have been organizing in Latin America over the past twenty years, and to connect key concepts and language from those struggles with what is new and beautiful in the social relations being created by people’s movements in the United States today.

There are of course many similarities with preceding forms of organization and mobilization, especially with the movement for global justice of the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, we are choosing to ground the discussion in movements and groups that arose from and are comprised of ordinary people, rather than activists.

Language is not neutral, and words transport and express concepts and ways of thinking. They can consolidate and perpetuate hierarchies, domination and control just as they can underline equality and strengthen consciousness. Latin American struggles for dignity, freedom and liberation are rooted in more than five hundred years of resistance. Language derived from their struggles comes with historical antecedents.

Among the concepts we explore are Territory, Assembly, Rupture, Popular Power, Horizontalism, Autogestión (self-administration), and Protagonism. Examples of each term are drawn from different Latin American communities of struggle, from the spreading of Horizontalidad with the popular rebellion in Argentina, and the concept of Territory seen in Bolivia and Mexico, to the construction of Popular Power in the Consejos Comunales in Venezuela, and the vision of interconnected human diversity articulated in the call for “one world in which many worlds fit” by the indigenous Zapatista communities in Chiapas, Mexico.

training specific to interpreting for social justice movements

There are still a couple of slots in the training at Wayside, in Virginia, on Sept. 28-30, led by my fantastic compas, Ricardo Tijerina and Catalina Nieto.  I highly recommend it - it's well worth a long drive to get there if you're in driving distance. 

I'd also like to take a minute to say a HUGE thank you to the amazing Catalina, who incredibly generously donated her professional interpretation services for the entire month of the caravan for peace. If you need interpretation services on the East coast, please consider her. 

Catalina is a community organizer, popular educator, Spanish/English interpreter and artist. Since Catalina’s arrival to the United States from Colombia in 2000, she has organized with the immigrant rights and Latin American solidarity movements. She has worked as the National Grassroots Organizer with the Latin American solidarity organization Witness for Peace, and as the Education Director with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. Catalina has also interned at the Highlander Center for Popular Education and at the Chicago ENLACE Partnership. Catalina graduated in 2011 with a M.A. in Social Justice and Intercultural Relations from SIT Graduate Institute. She holds a B.A. in Sociology and a B.A. in Communications, Media and Theater from Northeastern Illinois University.

Her contact info is s.catalina.nieto@gmail.com

my evolving shpiel for folks who misuse the terms interp/translator

Sometimes bilingual people who I explain the interpretation translation distinction to try to tell me that in Spanish traducción means interpretation.

I assume that everyone reading this blog will know that it is not, but I thought I would share an email I sent to a compa who had this confusion. I wrote:

"I want to explain why this is not just some high horse and why this distinction matters so much to us. The same traducción as written and interpretación as spoken distinction exists in Spanish as in English - it's just that people are perhaps even MORE likely to get it wrong in Spanish.

As activist interps we want to make our movements more powerful by making them more multilingual - to do that movements really need to understand language services so they can use them well. It turns out that translation and interpretation are two pretty different skills that require different tools, training and talents (great writing skills vs speaking skills, different software, etc). Part of the reason we insist on educating folks to use the right terms is as a first step towards improving movements use of interps and translation so that our movements can be stronger and more effective.

I will understand if you get this wrong another hundred times, but I'd like to ask you, particularly when speaking publicly about our work to try to remember to use the term interpretación in Spanish when that's what you mean, not traducción, even if that's what other folks you've been working with have been using. "

Multilingual movements are stronger movements! Lets build our power as movements by teaching our compas to do multilingualism well!