Spanish For Social Change

Nicaraguan politics today is just so bizarre.  I just read this fabulous portrayal of how surreal it all is, which I highly recommend.  In...

Pero ojo, stand up can be tricky, and isn't always best rendered as defiende.

I like this rendition, used in the important nacla article below, forwarded to me by mining watch and well worth a read. (and note, I co...

In other countries in Latin America this actually gets called secuestro express in Spanish. I don't think paseo millonario would be wid...

congrats to cross-cultural communications on their fabulous new community interpreter site! I am particularly impressed by the fabulous we...

I got alot of "que guapa"s recently for carrying around a heavy backpack in Cali.   Just goes to show words don't always mean ...

tocayo: name brother Rather than call another Sara by her name, in Spanish I would often call her tocaya. Since this concept doesn't...

Sometimes this is rendered as cuidado, but I like the plural version, since these chains involve so many forms of caring.  The s could also ...

this is a repeat post , because I saw this term mistranslated several different ways today (including war bounty!) in tweets honoring today ...

In Mexico a plantón is a somewhat long term encampment, a protest camp occupy style. The Mexican teachers union (the largest union in the Am...

according to wikipedia, "A sit-down strike is a form of civil disobedience in which an organized group of workers, usually employed ...

a regular fanny pack is just a canguro, at least in Colombia

Many thanks to my fab compas Kath and Fiona who have had extended conversations with me about this.  The term is often used to refer to bloc...

As in, vamos a transversalizar género en esta conferencia - so as opposed to having break out sessions just on gender it's going to be d...

Wayside (in Virginia) is doing another training led by fabulous colleagues of mine from October 25 - 27th.  It's aimed at bilingual ac...

I am yet again helping to organize the interpreting at the vigil to close the School of the Americas - a US army training camp for Latin Am...

These are widely used by both paramilitaries and mining companies in Colombia.  Pacific Rubiales, for example, has responded to outrage and ...

well, actually petard would work fine with a British audience, but in the US you might do better with the unwieldy term "small homemade...

Having gotten my medical interpreter certification from the state of Washington way back in 1994, I'm stunned to have learned that Cali...

Yes, it is something like land-use planning, but it is different enough that I like this rendition that sounds slightly odd in English, aler...

There is a new resource book out: Conference Interpreting: A Student’s Practice Book (Routledge, 2013) by Andrew Gillies.   Check out thi...

In Colombia young men are required to do military service.  Batidas are military raids in poor neighborhoods that target youth who have avoi...

Yesterday the Colombian National Centre of Historical Memory issued a major report on the Colombian conflict, entitled in Spanish, Basta Ya...

I have blogged before about the term tutela , which is the Colombian version of what is more often throughout Latin America called amparo. ...

beware of the different connotations of words!  in Guate this implies a plantation in Col it can often mean a vacation home, with a little...