comunidad de base

comunidad de base: organized community

in the last post I argued that base is usually grassroots, but here is another example that occurred to me where, in context, it can refer to organizing

You may have heard of the term christian base communities - a key part of liberation theology. sometimes when people say comunidad de base they mean these, but often they are simply referring to an organized community, be it that they have a strong community council, work groups, or that they are part of some larger campesino organization of what have you.

I am posting today from Turbo, and leave soon for the peace community of San Jose, an organized community if ever there was one.

What is a peace community? In this case it is a group of campesinos who have chosen not to participate in the war in any way, and have asked all of the armed actors (paramilitaries, guerillas and the military) to stay out of their community. As a result they have been attacked by all sides. In their eleven years they have suffered over 160 violent deaths. Three years ago one of their leaders was killed in a horrific massacre with his family and another family. Luis Eduardo Guerra had only a few years earlier come to the School of the Americas vigil to denounce attacks on the peace community. (that link has more info on the massacre)

The brigade accused of killing him was led by an SOA graduate. Since his death the community has bravely continued sending community members to speak at the SOA vigil in the US about the attacks and to work in solidarity with us to end US military involvement in Colombia. I have been honored to interpret for them. Now it's my turn to go to the community in our joint struggle against militarism.

February 21st will be the third anniversary of the massacre, and I am going with the community on their "return" – a three day hike up to where Luis Eduardo and the others were killed. This is territory that is seriously disputed between the guerillas and the military and the paramilitaries. There will be a big group of folks from the community and a significant number of international accompaniers on this hike, which helps with safety, but there are no guarantees. Please send us all lots of safety wishes. I'll send a report on how it goes when I get back at the end of the month.

trabajo de base

trabajo de base: grassroots organizing

I heard this rendered as "base work" - which has got to be one of the all time most dangerous false cognates.

in other news I found fabulous affordable housing in the funky neighborhood of la Macarena. yay!

I've (reasonably) been asked to explain why it bugs me so much that base gets mistranslated with its cognate. To me the first connotation that comes to mind with "base" is low, and in some contexts it could even be misunderstood as degrading. yikes! The next definition that would come to me for "base" would be military base - which might actually seem to make sense depending on the context, and again would be a total misunderstanding. Base is commonly mistranslated with its cognate, not just as part of this term. bad news! avoid it!

Of course "work" means something very different than organizing - but usually in movement contexts speakers are really referring specifically to organizing with this phrase, which is understood in Spanish, but needs to be specified in English.

affordable housing

affordable housing: vivienda asequible, vivienda al alcance economico, vivienda economicamente accesible

The first if the standard, and the easier and quicker term, but sometimes I wonder if low literacy listeners get it - which is when I would turn to either of the latter two, or if in a real pinch while doing simultaneous, just 'vivienda al alcance'.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines "affordable" as housing that costs no more than 30 percent of a household's monthly income. That includes the cost of utilities. Other public agencies sometimes define affordable housing as those units that are subsidized such that renters or owners do not pay more than that 30%. The number of units with those kinds of subsidies has been cut drastically in recent years. Sadly way way too many people, in the US and around the world, pay far more than 30%.

Right now I'm looking hard for some housing that's affordable, sunny, and in the Macarena neighborhood of Bogotá. Wish me luck!

town hall meeting

town hall meeting: cabildo abierto

Sometimes, though less so, also called 'cabildo general'. I also recently heard "evento de opinion publica" (gracias Juan). That may be more easily understood, especially by those with lower literacy, but I like the historical referent of cabildo abierto, especially given that town hall meetings also have historical roots.

to ground

ground: poner polo a tierra

In both English and Spanish this term comes from the electrical meaning, but is used metaphorically to mean to bring a discussion back to earth, to the concrete, or it can refer to bringing your body energy and spirit back down to earth, in a chi gong kind of way. We could all probably use more of this too.

Veeduria

veeduria: oversight

We could certainty use more of it, in government institutions, NGO's, and in movements. I am a big fan of the Quaker 'oversight committee' model. On a similar note, seguimiento can be follow-through, but when it's a comisión I would render it as a Monitoring Commission.

shopdrop

shopdrop: deja-compras

Ready to engage in some anti-capitalist monkey wrenching after that commodity fest? Try shopdropping. Thanks to Jonathan Luna for this creative rendition in Spanish.

commodity fetishism

commodity fetishism: fetichismo de la mercancía

commodity is widely rendered as mercancía in academic literature (and in lefty rags, actually ran into this term in the newspaper of the National University here : ) Though I've seen commodity translated differently, this seems the safest bet. Seemed like a good term for this commodity-fest.

people of color

people of color: gente no blanca

This is a term in English that points to the politics of the person using the term, in particular to a recognition that certain people are racialized and the importance of coalition, that is, of making connections between the ways different 'people of color' are racialized The very mainstream variant would be 'ethnic minorities'. It is similar to the difference between the terms Hispanic and Latino, in the sense that you can peg someone's politics by what term they use. The literal translation in Spanish, gente de color, might make sense to Latinos in the US that know the term in English, or might even use it in Spanish language anti-racist organizing or coalition work, but it is total non-sense in Latin America. One option that was suggested to me was gente de comunidades etnicas, but again, this does not point to racialization. No, I don't think "race" exists, but racialization is a daily reality, that we have to make visible to be able to change. Terminology is important for this work. (Yes, white folks have a "race" too, but they are not racialized in the same way). (note that the term person of color is rarely used in Canada, where the widely used term, in both government and social justice contexts, is "visible minority").

Thanks to Roberto from Highlander for help on this one. I also asked for help on proz and found that most of the answers were really clueless about the politics of this term and the social justice context, so ojo when using proz for politically charged terms.

addendum:
My friend Jonathan Luna, who is active in people of color organizing in the States, as well as inter-racial organizing in Colombia, argues for trying to teach/introduce the term gente de color in Latin America, given that it makes more sense to define by what people are than what they are not. I get that logic, and if you were going to try to do that I would suggest putting (todas las personas no blancas) after the first use of the term. I doubt 'gente de color' will ever catch on, but hey, you could try.

sororidad

sororidad: sisterhood

Certainly not sorority! Maybe there are some feminist sororities out there, but they tend not to be. This term seems to be more and more frequently used by feminists across Latin America, including the Ruta Pacifica that I went on the amazing mobilization with last week. Over 5,000 women shut down the Colombian-Ecuadoran border for an hour and a half! Very thankfully, there was no repression after all. My pictures of it are here.

(hermandad of course could mean both brotherhood and sisterhood, but tends to mean brotherhood, thus the turn to the term sororidad).

hit the streets

hit the streets: quemar pavimento

This is the first year in many many that I'm not hitting the streets on this weekend to close the School of the Americas. Many thanks and saludos to my fantastic interpreter compas who are there in my place. News, photos and videos of the vigil are up at a the SOA Watch site. This is the largest ongoing protest against U.S. imperialism happening inside the U.S., and the largest ongoing act of civil disobedience in the United States. As far as I know we are the only large outdoor protest in the US to have the entire event interpreted simultaneously into Spanish. I'm very proud to be part of organizing the vigil with the interpretation and translation working group.

I am missing the SOA vigil this year because I'm going to be quemando pavimento in a few days with the Ruta Pacifica de Mujeres, who are caravaning from all across Colombia to the border with Ecuador. Some buses are leaving today, we'll leave Bogota on Wed the 21st, and we'll all meet for a march to the border on Friday the 23rd. Ecuadoran women are marching from the other side to meet us. The march is timed around the international day against violence against women, the 25th. The violence in the border region has gone from bad to worse and streams of Colombians have been displaced into Ecuador. The mobilization is focusing on violence against women on both sides of the border, and how militarism leads to various forms of violence (including hunger, rape, displacement, forced prostitution, domestic violence, child abuse, etc). The Ruta has always emphasized that women are the most affected by war, and the best placed to make peace. They reworks the dynamics of war with poetry, and their peace rituals are beautifully symbolic, visual and theatrical. They will march as women in black, woven together with orange ties of resistance. Photos to come. There is some real chance, ironically, that the march will face a violent response, so please hold us in the light next Friday.

Spanglish

Spanglish: Inglañol

Why do we always just leave it as Spanglish? English hegemony just maybe? The googlage difference between these two terms is stunning.

campesino (redux)

campesino: family farmer (campesino)

In my previous entry for campesino I argued for importing, and keeping it as campesino. I still think that in a lot of movement contexts this is best, but in the recent Witness for Peace newsletter (not yet online) I noticed that they used "family farmer". I like this much better than the "small farmer" I gave as the other option to campesino. Obviously "family farmer" has different emotional weight in the U.S. than campesino, and I think it's a wise move for drawing connections and making a political impact. Of course the life of a family farmer in the US is quite different than that of a Colombian campesino, but both are being squeezed out by corporate agribusiness and "free" trade agreements.

observatorio

observatorio: watch

Observatorio de racismo, observatorio de genero y justicia, observatorio de inmigracion ... there are tons of them here in Colombia, and all over Latin America and Spain. I've seen this translated into English as observatory, but it seems like a false cognate to me. We don't normally use that term for anything like that in English. We do however have several similar organizations that use the term watch, most notably the School of the Americas Watch (SOAW) and Amazon Watch (both of which I interpret or translate for). I think the connotation in Spanish is a bit more academic, that is to say that a lot of the observatorios are associated with universities - but observatorios certainly do plenty of lobbying as well, based on the documentation work at the heart of these organizations, both North and South.

Thanks to Andrea for helping me think this through, and my compas on the SOAW interpretation working group. Ojo que some SOA activists have used observadores, but I've been lobbying for observatorio. Not only is it the closer equivalent, but observadores y observadoras de la escuela de las americas is a mouthful.

cartoneros

cartoneros: urban salvagers

I recently saw a great documentary called Cartoneros, a short version of which is below. They used scavenger for cartonero, but I think salvager has much more dignity to it. Just saw Bryan on subtopia use the term urban salvager, and like that specificity. In Vancouver the term is binner, but that seems very Vancouver specific - other English speakers don't seem to get it. There's actually also a movie about the Vancity binners, called Traplines in Vancouver, made by a French Geographer. The Vancouver binners association has one of my favorite organization names: United We Can. The other term is dumpster diver - which some folks use with great pride, but I don't think is as widely well regarded as salvager.

(ojo que en español Colombiano es reciclador, y, como dice Raul en los comentarios, en Mexicano pepenador, que viene del nahuatl)

organización de base

organización de base: grassroots organization

I've heard the false cognate, base organization, more than once. It's a particularly unfortunate one, again because of the different connotation of the cognate. Base could easily be understood to mean unethical, immoral, or low class.

militante

militante: activist; fighter

On Friday Democracy Now! covered President Carter calling Cheney a militant. Webster's has a militant listed first as someone who engages in warfare, and second as someone who is combative for their cause. I assume Carter meant the first, and I think it's far and away the stronger association for that term in English, so I often flinch when I hear interps going into En render militante with its cognate - because usually in our contexts the Sp speakers are not talking about being guerilla fighters, and in fact very much do not want to be seen that way (no joke in Colombia where you can be killed for a rumor like that). Usually it seems to me that "activist" is the more appropriate cultural equivalent. And then there are those times when your speaker will say "yo era militante con el Frente" (though really, they'd usually say "yo militaba") and there you go by context. I still wouldn't use militant though. I'd say "I was a fighter with" or "I fought with".

walkout

walkout: huelga escolar

I like that in Spanish this tactic is more clearly related to a worker's strike - in English it makes it sound like you just leave school, but of course they usually involve a march or a picket. Really, student strike is a better term for it than walkout. The We all live in Jena walkouts a few weeks ago got me thinking about this one. Kudos to Amy Goodman for fantastic coverage of this case on Democracy Now! (you can listen/watch here - the video documentary bits are great descriptions of the case, or you can read the basics of it here. If you haven't signed the petition yet, please do. This case is turning into an important way to highlight how deeply flawed the so-called "justice" system is in the U.S.

even more Evo on the daily show

the day after Evo was on the daily show Jon Stewart made a joke about the interpreting! I can't quite decide if he's saying it was impressive or ... ?! Turns out that it was NOT the same interp he had on Democracy Now. I learned from Adam Isaacson's fantastic Plan Colombia blog that it was Charlie Roberts of the Washington-based Colombia Human Rights Committee. Ok, what other president would use a social justice organizer-interp? Usually presidential interps are, um ... well, not in the trenches of the struggle shall we say.

animador(a)

animador(a): organizer

This is often mis-translated with the false cognate, and somehow when I hear it I think of that woman on the Love Boat who was trying to get everyone to be happy and social. She was an animator. In the U.S. I render organizer (as in community, or political) as organizador(a), in Colombia I would probably use animadora. Proz and wordref will tell you that animadora means cheerleader, but it will usually be obvious in our contexts that the role is equivalent to organizer. Of course, part of being a good organizer is to cheerlead.

what are you trying to pull?

Evo Morales is all over the US left media. Jon Stewart had him on the Daily Show! In around minute three he goes over all of his campaign promises, points out that he accomplished them all in 8 months, and asks "What are you trying to pull?" The interpreter totally missed it. (I think it was the same interp - simul here, which was better, but it was still awkward). Henry Hinds, whose name you know if you've ever looked up terms on proz - he's got to be the most prolific answerer - suggests "¿qué es lo que esta tramando?"

concertación

concertacion: concertation; consensus building

Yesterday Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, was on Democracy Now (see it here - and sign up for the fab podcasts or email headlines - in Spanish even). Anyways, Thom Khun was interpreting (though sadly he was not acknowledged, and he struggled to do it consec - it really should have been simultaneous). At one point Thom rendered concertación as concertation. I was convinced this was a false cognate that came out in the heat of the moment, but when I looked it up it does indeed have an English-only googlage of 342,000 - the thing is they're almost all European sites. And, in fact, the Random House definition (via dictionary.com) says:
(esp. in European politics) cooperation, as among opposing factions, aimed at effecting a unified proposal or concerted action.
I really doubt that most English speakers in the US will know this meaning. I would vote for consensus building. Other suggestions?
(Jon's right - it can also mean coalition, though I think that's not quite how Evo was using it)

day laborer

day laborer: jornalero (Mex, and thus used most in US)

the National Day Laborer Organizing Network is the Red Nacional de Jornaleros. Why their site is only in English is a mystery. I guess their own base is unlikely to be looking at it. I'm fascinated by how they tend to gather now not so much at street corners but are moving to the Home Depot parking lots. There's also a freaky counter phenomena of xenophobic folks who go to these parking lots and try to push them out or picket against them. etc - Mike Davis calls this 'crabgrass apartheid'. Anyone want to take a stab at translating that? I don't think he means fake, like astroturf ... more like sprouting up all over. But then, it IS a play on grassroots. Hmm.

squatters

squatters: okupas (Spain)

In Spain it seems squatters are more likely to be the young anarchist punk types you're likely to see in a squat in the States and Canada - thus the k in okupas. a squat itself is called a casa okupa or a casa okupada (though my friends from Barcelona say it's usually casa okupa - many thanks to Saray and Guille for this insight and the links). Is this word being used in Latin America? Not sure, the urban squatting scene is pretty different. Certainly no punks in the amazing Bogotá squat movie La estrategia del caracol, which I highly recommend.

WHINSEC (SOA)

Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC): Instituto de Cooperación para la Seguridad Hemisférica

This is the creepy new world order name that the U.S. Army gave to what they formerly called the School of the Americas (SOA). The movement to shut it down still widely calls it the SOA. This is the army's official translation, which you'll notice doesn't bother to mention *which* hemisphere in Spanish. WHINSEC is the army's offical acronym. Maybe because they didn't want you to think they were just trying to "WHISC" away the problem by renaming it.

I have been involved in the movement to shut down the SOA for eight years. Interpreting at the annual vigil in front of the school is far and away the most rewarding interpreting I do, I can't recommend it enough. The vigil is amazing (see videos of past years), and as an interpreter you get to be at the heart of it. This year I won't be able to go because I'll be in Colombia marching with the also amazing Ruta Pacifica. Will you please take my place in Georgia? If you have interpreting experience, we can put you up and help with travel costs. Here is the official pro bono help wanted ad. If you can't make it but know someone else who might, please do send it to them. Thanks!

Wanted:
Volunteer Spanish and Sign interpreters and translators
for the School of the Americas demonstration:
Interpreters: Nov. 16-18, 2007 at Ft. Benning, Georgia
Translators: from home! any time!

Outraged at our government's support for torture, from Colombia to Iraq? Here is a concrete, powerful short-term way to make a difference. We need your help to expose the School of the Americas, the notorious military training school for Latin American soldiers and police located on U.S. soil, at Fort Benning, Georgia.

The School of the Americas, now named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHINSEC), has left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned. The school has trained over 61,000 Latin American soldiers. Graduates of the SOA/WHISNEC have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people, and in the past few years, known human rights abusers have returned to the school for further training and instruction.

For more information about the SOA/WHINSEC and SOA Watch, the grassroots movement working to shut it down, visit www.SOAW.org

This November Vigil is the largest gathering annual gathering against U.S. military empire happening inside the United States. We are committed to creating a truly bilingual space and movement and we need your help this November 16-18!

Do you have experience interpreting or translating?
Make a difference. Make the trip. Be a vital part of this moving and powerful protest.

Don't feel comfortable interpreting but speak Spanish and want to help?
There are also lots of other ways to help!

We need:

• Simultaneous interpreters - English > Spanish (of all stage program)
• Consecutive interpreters - Spanish > English (with some En>Sp) (at workshops)
• Accompaniment interpreters - English <> Spanish (help move around the crowd, make informal connections, less skill required)
• Spanish speaking media outreach volunteers (make phone calls, translate and edit press releases, etc. all levels of experience welcome)
• Spanish speaking assistants (does not require high fluency, answer basic questions and hand out interpretation equipment)
• Sign interpreters (simultaneous on stage)

All interpreting will be done in teams, in short shifts. We may be able to offer housing and help with travel costs for interpreters.

Can't come? Help from home!

We also need:

• Translators of English > Spanish for a variety of outreach documents.

(Some established translation memory available to those who would like to use it, not required but it makes the job easier! You can use the freeware Wordfast program, which works on top of MS Word, or for those already using other programs the existing TM is compatible through TMX.)

• Editors and proofers of Spanish translations. (glossary is provided)

If you can contribute in any of these ways please contact:
Joao Da Silva, jdasilva@soaw.org, 202- 234-3440