Spanish For Social Change

Should we avoid using (or translating into) words with little known racist etymologies? I avoid the word 'gyp'' in English, even...

A big thanks to Claudia Johnson at the very cool LawHelp Interactive who pointed me to a bunch of great resources. The Sacramento Courts ha...

I was reminded by my fab compa Jeremy of the importance of sending something like this, so I just modified Jeremy's version and sent thi...

A book-length translation of the work of Mexican feminist activist and social critic Marta Lamas has just come out, translated by John Pluec...

Interpretation is oral, translation is written. I must have said this one sentence out loud over a thousand times by now. My friends and f...

hue-ism as in racism, but, as I understand it, particularly discrimination within communities of color of people with darker skin. I heard ...

primordial: fundamental As in, 'su apoyo ha sido primordial para nosotros'. This is another one of those that sounds really funny i...

good standing: cumplimiento y constancia as in, member in good standing - miembro cumplido y constante or, for example, "Miembros de pl...

"Language and the human spirit are inextricably intertwined. We interpret the world through language. We express ourselves through lang...

es es titulo de una exposición lindisima que ví en Bogotá. Acabo de encontrar el glosario de la exposicion enlinea aca , la recomiendo alta...

minga: minga (collective work action) la minga llega a Bogota The above are photos I took of the Colombian minga at the end of their long ma...

… in two languages … with their tongues … with their mouth open

environmental security : seguridad ecológica See Simon Dalby's book by this name. I'm not sure Simon would include the breaking nu...

no fly zone: zona de exclusión aérea though this editorial in the Guardian argues that it's a euphemism for war

Spanish...¿Cómo como como? Como como como!! English equivalent...what do you mean how I eat? I eat the way I eat! Try this with ANY machin...

I haven't been good at keeping up my promise to offer tips for becoming a better interpreter on this blog, but here is one that will pai...

yellow dog union/ company union/ false-front union: sindicato charro (Mx), sindicato proteccionista (Mx), sindicato corporativizado (Mx), si...

lobbyista I know, it sounds funny, but check out this article that uses it. Also see my previous post about lobbying in general. I agree w...

Point your iphone at a word on the wall and *poof* have it machine translated. What is hilarious about this ad for it is that it is riddled ...

degrowth: decrecimiento With props to my student Skyler, who first taught me about this great concept, and even worked on this wikipedia ent...

sapo: snitch If you haven't heard the dramatic story of the activist snitch recently exposed in the UK check it out here.

minga: collective work project/exchange/party/action (my favorite is the last) I DO think it is worth translating at least once - just leav...

I posted before about dot sub as one subtitling software option, and in a comment (thank you all commenters!) Manuel suggested Subtitle Wor...

primero Dios: if it is God's will I have often struggled to interpret this saying, which is sometimes sprinkled liberally throughout sen...

una tertulia: a 'salon' or an artsy 'get-together' When I went looking for images online, they were mostly of men talking. ...