Wednesday, May 28, 2008

señalado

señalado: singled out, fingered (better options?)



No, this great video doesn't use this term, but a friend who is helping the fabulous ACA media team (who did the above video) to subtitle another video of theirs asked for help with it and I've been struggling with the term. The use here is señalado as in when someone (often a demobilized guerilla or paramilitary) says oh so and so used to work with us (which is often not true). These are the best I came up with. Any other suggestions?

ACA has a ton of other great documentaries about Colombia up on youtube here. Certainly not mainstream media.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tricky... I always have real trouble with this and tend to translate it differently depending on context.

"pointed out" often works, sometimes "accused" can carry the important connotation of the falsity of the senalamiento.

I'd avoid "fingered" though unless your audience is exclusively North American English speakers or you could have Brits thinking you're talking about a sexual assualt!

Sara Koopman said...

ack! I had no idea of the British use. thank you!

Dan Feder said...

I usually just use "accused" or sometimes "named" - it clearly loses some of the nuance but is less awkward than the other options.