Spanish For Social Change

Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation ( WHINSEC): Instituto de Cooperación para la Seguridad Hemisférica This is the creepy ...

catracho: Honduran slang. equivalent to chapin for Guatemalan and guanaco for Savadoran. (thanks to Andres Thomas Conteris for this one)

astroturf: movimiento blanco (in Mexico) A derogatory term used for a movement we don't believe is truly grassroots but consider to be a...

gender queer: no conformista a base de genero This really just comes from the other way of saying gender queer in English, which is gender n...

squat: casa tomada (o edificio tomado) (or okupa in Spain - see also entry for squatters) I saw this term used in this semana article on T...

campesino: campesino (see below for notes on small farmer and/or peasant) I'm finally back home after all my conferencing. At the Lati...

(carbon) offsets : compensaciones (de emisiones) Sometimes called offsetting projects, which I would render as proyectos de compensacion de ...

living wage: salario digno living wage is completely misdefined on answers.com, which led to great frustration as I tried to explain this co...

able-bodied: persona sin discapacidades I've been chewing on this one since my first post on ablism. It's really so strange that th...

netizen: ciudadano internauta my colleague Tori raised the good point that limited English speakers might not recognize this term if you...

correr la voz: spread the word obviously not run, or spill, the voice - though doesn't that sound strangely cool?

encuentro: meeting, conference, gathering, workshop It sounds so much more prosaic in English. I wish I could come up with something that h...

Are you studying obscure legal terminology for a certification test? ah, that endless interpreter endeavor ... I have crazy huge collections...

lactivism: lactivismo Yes, a neologism in both languages, but the Spanish version does actually have some minor googlage. Here is the wikipe...

Accountability: Rendicion de cuentas; Responsabilidad por; Responsabilidad a (to hold accountable: responsabilizar) There are three senses o...

Si Se Puede!: Yes We Can! There are lots of other versions, but this catches the spirit of it and also works well as a chant.

lockout: cierre patronal A lockout is a work stoppage in which an employer prevents employees from working. This is differentiated from a...

detras de nosotros, estamos ustedes: behind us, we are you I can't take credit for this one - I saw it in an email. It's the title ...

empower: potenciar, apoderar, empoderar The dictionary says to empower is to give someone else power (I empower you to do it). In that sens...

outreach: promoción Kenny mentioned that he uses difusión de información; información al público; educación/educar al público but those all ...

grassroots: popular Thanks to Kenny for reminding me to put this one up. I run into folks screwing this one up all the time, though usually...

femocrat: femocrata a member of the gender technocracy (tecnocracia de género) That later term was coined by autonomous Latin American femin...

Queer: Queer (but if you have a chance, sneak in LGBT to cover your bases, and if you're doing simul and by some miracle have a long pau...

ableism: capacitadismo my invention. much faster than "discriminacion contra los discapacitados" when you're doing simultaneo...