Spanish For Social Change

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...

concertacion: concertation; consensus building Yesterday Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, was on Democracy Now (see it here - and sig...

day laborer: jornalero (Mex, and thus used most in US) the National Day Laborer Organizing Network is the Red Nacional de Jornaleros. Why ...

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 squ...

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...