Spanish For Social Change

gente = people vs pueblo = THE people thought of it from seeing this comment at loquesomos.org: "This is what we have to confront. Thes...

accumulation by dispossession: acumulación por desposesión What's up with the US wanting to put in seven new military bases in Colombia ...

How's that for jargon? New to me. It seems to mean “all types of interlingual transmission, such as translation, interpreting, and subti...

Cinturon de miseria - slum belt This refers to the ring of slums around many (most?) cities in Latin America. Slum being rendered by Sebasti...

the commons: el en-común commonism: el en-comunismo One for the lefty theory geeks. Props to my compa Sebastian (te fuiste!), who (with a c...

vereda (Col): dispersed rural settlement In my previous post I argued for rendering it as township - which led to some interesting conversa...

rancho: shack - generally not ranch!! While on the topic, here is another dangerous false cognate. Ranch in English implies something total...

False cognates are always dangerous, but there are some that can be particularly bad news for movement interpreters: comprometido - certainl...

piquetero: piquetero (member of the Argentinian unemployed workers movement) Hoy el wiki lo define asi : Los piqueteros son activistas, que...

blockade - bloqueo (In Mexico sometimes tope de carretera - can also be piquete in Argentina - see note below) Barricade; road block - bar...

Unlike translation, interpretation is a performance art. You have to practice your scales - but then when you're on, it's not about ...

I am such a geek that sometimes while watching subtitled movies I write down translations I either like or don't. I recently sat through...

Guate - canche Panama - fulo/fula CR - macho (macha para mujeres?!) Nica/El Salvador - chele/ chele Mexico - güero/güera Colombia - mono/...

proceso: organizing process, organizing project Often proceso just gets rendered literally, as process, as it is in the video above by the N...

botín de guerra: war trophy "El cuerpo de la mujer no es botín de guerra" is a slogan of the Ruta Pacifica de Mujeres in Colombia...

mochacabezas: decapitators It's a higher register in English but I can't think of another way of putting it, other than maybe the he...

tejido social: social fabric Though I prefer the more poetic weave, it sounds odd in English. We can certainly talk about weaving together ...

se ve, se siente, X esta presente (often los estudiantes, las mujeres, etc): You can see it, You can feel it, We the X are here. Often said ...

falsos positivos: false positives/ extrajudicial killing Extrajudicial Killing In Colombia from Witness For Peace on Vimeo . The above is ...

ni perdon, ni olvido! : never forgive! never forget! Yes, the exclamation marks are necessary since this is usually shouted with great passi...

This one not only explains the differences between different legal systems, but has handouts (in the appendixes) that can be used by attorne...

fantastic super short spot highlighting the need for medical interps

to trouble (a concept): problematizar As in, with my research I am trying to trouble how we do solidarity, in particular around the colonial...

Below is the text from a hand out that I prepared years ago for educating pro bono attorneys in Seattle. Feel free to use all of part of it....

cultivos de pancoger: food crops fanTAStic video by Witness for Peace well worth watching! Shoveling Water from Witness For Peace on Vimeo...