chucha

chucha is one of those words with what seems like a thousand meanings depending on the country. Below is a video making fun of these sorts of words. It's slow to get going but well worth the fun terminology lesson if you keep going. The many definitions of chucha come in around minute two.



thanks to Tedd for this link and to Victor Manuel for the reminder.

great translation tool

wordreference has added new search bar add ons for firefox since the last time I blogged about the tools I use

or if you prefer, they have also set up a keyword system

the new ones go in each direction, and also have synonyms, which are useful for going sideways when you're stuck (i.e. find another way to say it in the source language and then go to a source to target dictionary) - and include the Sp > Sp RAE (LA real academia)

back channel

back channel: un canal de comunicación discreto

This came up in this interview of former Colombian president Pastrana on the tenth anniversary of the peace negotiations - Pastrana said it in both English and Spanish interestingly.

warlords

warlords: señores de la guerra

unfortunately it doesn't sound as good if you're just talking about ONE warlord (it's Carlos Castaño in the photo). I haven't heard this term widely used in Colombia, but it's in the title of one of the best books on the paramilitaries in Colombia:

Los señores de la guerra: de paramilitares, mafiosos y autodefensas en Colombia by Gustavo Duncan

TRAINING coming up in interpreting for social justice

speaking of the fabulous Wayside, they have a training coming up
March 23rd - 25th, 2012

1100 Mill Pond Road
Faber, VA 22938
(434) 263-5115

GOALS:

• To build a cadre of skilled social justice interpreters in the Southeast and Appalachia who can empower immigrant communities by providing language accessibility to promote social justice
• To encourage local leadership in immigrant communities through sharing skills by training other community members in social justice interpreting
• To create multilingual spaces in social justice communities where language is used democratically as a movement-building tool of power

REGISTRATION FEES
(based on income)
Full and partial scholarships available

Income	Fee
Under $15,000	$170
$15 - $25,000	$200
$25 - $35,000	$240
$35 - $45,000	$280
$45 - $55,000	$325
over $55,000	$375

WHO THIS IS FOR:
Bilingual social justice activists and workers who would like to learn more about interpreting and translating in a social justice context to empower immigrant communities and build alliances across communities.

SESSIONS WILL INCLUDE:

• Interpreter Role and Ethics
• Interpretation modes
• Use of interpreting equipment
• Differences and similarities in social justice interpreting
• Impact of language barriers in social justice movement building
• How to create a multilingual space

Hands-on interpreting by participants throughout the workshop

Please Note: Participants should be able to commit to the entire program schedule (Friday 10 am through Sunday 4 pm).

Registration is based on a sliding scale. If you are paying for the workshop yourself, use your household income. If your organization is paying, use the organizational income. Registration includes three days of training, meals, lodging and linens.

Full and partial scholarships are available.

SIGN UP HERE

politiquería

politiquería: influence-peddling

this rendition caught my eye in Adam Isaacson's report on Montes de Maria over at the fabulous Just the Facts website. Sounds like politqueria is the least of the problems there.

why I don't love "language justice" terminology

I've been mulling over the 'language justice' terminology used by a lot of my compas who organize to make our movements more multilingual. I don't really like it. My sense is that it makes it sound like making the space fully bilingual is about justice for limited English speakers - or at any rate it seems easy for fluent English speakers to interpret it that way - rather than understanding that it benefits, say, limited Spanish speakers as much or more to have a broader more inclusive smarter movement with access to more experiences and insights. Rather than talk about 'language justice' I would prefer calling it the 'bilingual space committee' or what have you. Of course a bilingual space involves much more than interp and trans, but also bilingual facilitation and more (for how to see the great tips in the resource in this post).

Now if it's a matter of getting proper language interpretation in court, there I'm all for using the term 'language justice'.

But then again, I might be wrong about the connotations of the term - because this image is from the fabulous Wayside center, and though they use the term 'language justice', as they put it:

"Wayside has made a commitment to build and amplify voices and languages not often heard in organizing and movement spaces. We are working in Virginia and DC with organizations that see the need, and the organizing power, of connecting people across race and language especially in immigrant communities. When we begin to see language as a tool of empowerment that gives value to people's culture and way of being, our organizations grow in heart, experience, and perspective. When we begin to see that interpreting is not just for mono-lingual non-English speakers but in fact for everyone who is unable to understand all languages present in a conversation, we can begin to see people working from abundance and not deficiency. When we interpret well, we open space for the jokes, the perspectives and the soul of everyone in the room to come through, building deeper solidarity, democracy, and a broader movement for change."

(fabulous! pero ojo: I prefer to use the term limited English vs. non-English since most users of interpretation will actually speak some basic English, and using the term non can reinforce the idea that interpretation is only for those who speak no English at all)

leaders

leaders: lideres y lideresas

I've been seeing this version in more Spanish language movement documents - recently in several from Bolivia. I have mixed feelings about it. I wish lideres was seen as including women, but I guess this highlights the role of women leaders.

los indigenistas

indigenista: indigenist

over on my other blog (decolonizing solidarity) I posted the story of three international solidarity activists from the US who were killed in Colombia in 1999. In the Colombian press they are widely called "los indigenistas", which got me wondering how to say that in English and yes, you read that right - that cognate does exist in English. Ward Churchill calls himself one and writes in this Z classic that

"By this, I mean that I am one who not only takes the rights of indigenous peoples as the highest priority of my political life, but who draws upon the traditions—the bodies of knowledge and corresponding codes of value—evolved over many thousands of years by native peoples the world over. This is the basis upon which I not only advance critiques of, but conceptualize alternatives to the present social, political, economic, and philosophical status quo. In turn, this gives shape not only to the sorts of goals and objectives I pursue, but the kinds of strategy and tactics I advocate, the variety of struggles I tend to support, the nature of the alliances I am inclined to enter into, and so on."

other resources to share with orgs that use interps

in my last post I shared a resource for organizations looking to be more multilingual in organizing, meetings, etc.

along the same lines, here are two more mainstream resources from the American Translator's Association

here is their promo text:

For non-linguists, buying interpreting services is often frustrating. Many buyers are not even sure they need a professional interpreter since they know someone who is bilingual and willing to help out.

Buyers simply don't see the same problems and risks of miscommunication that you see.

These potential clients need to know what you do and the value your services can bring to their business. That's where Interpreting: Getting It Right comes in. This straightforward brochure explains the where, why, and how of professional interpreting services. It's a quick read that offers practical, hands-on information for language services consumers, perfect for client education.

To preview this brochure online, click Interpreting: Getting It Right.

Translation: Getting it Right

There are hundreds of ways a translation project can go off track – ridiculous deadlines, misapplied machine translation, poor project management. You know because you've seen it all. But have your clients? Be sure they know the value you bring to their business and keep them coming back.

Client education is one of the best ways to build your customer base, and it's easy to do with the Translation: Getting It Right brochure.

ATA members can receive 20 free copies just for the asking. Contact the ATA Membership Services Manager for details.

But what if your client doesn't speak English? The brochure is now available in a number of other languages. Check out the links below!

You can also preview this client education booklet online. Click to download a PDF version of Translation: Getting It Right.

great resource for organizations

if you work with or for an organization that wants to be more multilingual,
check out this fantastic resource by my friend Alice.

if the link above doesn't get you a pdf go here and scroll down to 'interpretation'

social justice translation by Holdren and Touza

if you were impressed by the translator's notes by them that I posted, you might enjoy reading the full translator's preface and the actual translation

19 & 20: Notes for a New Social Protagonism (available entirely online here)
Colectivo Situaciones
Translated by Nate Holdren & Sebastián Touza
Introductions by Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri

An 18th Brumaire for the 21st Century: militant research on the December 19th and 20th, 2001 uprisings in Argentina

In the heat of an economic and political crisis, people in Argentina took to the streets on December 19th, 2001, shouting “¡Qué se vayan todos!” These words – “All of them out!” – hurled by thousands banging pots and pans, struck at every politician, economist, and journalist. These events opened a period of intense social unrest and political creativity that led to the collapse of government after government. Neighborhoods organized themselves into hundreds of popular assemblies across the country, the unemployed workers movement acquired a new visibility, workers took over factories and businesses. These events marked a sea change, a before and an after for Argentina that resonated around the world.

Colectivo Situaciones wrote this book in the heat of that December’s aftermath. As radicals immersed within the long process of reflection and experimentation with forms of counterpower that Argentines practiced in shadow of neoliberal rule, Colectivo Situaciones knew that the novelty of the events of December 19th and 20th demanded new forms of thinking and research. This book attempts to read those struggles from within. Ten years have passed, yet the book remains as relevant and as fresh as the day it came out. Multitudes of citizens from different countries have learned their own ways to chant ¡Qué se vayan todos!, from Iceland to Tunisia, from Spain to Greece, from Tahrir Square to Zuccotti Park. Colectivo Situactiones’ practice of engaging with movements’ own thought processes resonates with everyone seeking to think current events and movements, and through that to build a new world in the shell of the old.

“If the insurrection in Argentina that began in December 2001 was our Paris Commune, then Colectivo Situaciones fits well in the position of Karl Marx. As Friedrich Engels was fond of saying, one of Marx’s many talents was to analyze the historical importance of political events as they took place. This book by Colectivo Situaciones, written in the heat of action, certainly demonstrates that same talent in full, delving into the complexity of concrete events while simultaneously stepping back to recognize how our political reality has changed.” – Michael Hardt, from the Introduction

Bio: Colectivo Situaciones is a collective of militant researchers based in Buenos Aires. They have participated in numerous grassroots co-research activities with unemployed workers, peasant movements, neighborhood assemblies, and alternative education experiments.

poder o potencia?

from part two of that fabulous translators intro by Nate Holdren and Sebastián Touza (part one here):

... This brings us to a second translation difficulty. Two Spanish words translate as the English word “power”: poder and potencia. Generally speaking, we could say that poder defines power as “power over” (the sense it has, for instance, when it refers to state or sovereign power) and potencia defines “power to,” the type of capacity expressed in the statement “I can.”[2] To continue with the generalization, it is possible to say that poder refers to static forms of power, while potencia refers to its dynamic forms. Potencia always exists in the “here and now” of its exercise; it coincides with the act in which it is effected. This is because potencia is inseparable from our capacity—indeed, our bodies’ capacity—to be affected. This capacity cannot be detached from the moment, place, and concrete social relations in which potencia manifests itself. This is the reason for arguing, in the article we are introducing, that anything said about potencia is an abstraction of the results. Whatever is said or communicated about it can never be the potencia itself. Research militancy is concerned with the expansion of potencia. For that reason, a descriptive presentation of its techniques would necessarily lead to an abstraction. Such a description might produce a “method” in which all the richness of the potencia of research militancy in the situation is trimmed off to leave only that part whose utilitarian value make it transferrable to other situations.

The thought of practices is thought with the body, because bodies encounter each other in acts that immediately define their mutual capacities to be affected. History can only be the history of contingency, a sequence of moments with their own non-detachable intensities. Miguel Benasayag argues that act and state—to which correspond potencia and poder—are two levels of thought and life.[3] None of them can be subsumed under the other. Either one takes the side of potencia or the side of the poder (or of the desire for poder, as expressed in militants who want to “take power,” build The Party, construct hegemonies, etc.).

Potencias found in different forms of resistance are the foundation of counterpower, but both terms are not the same. Counterpower indicates a point of irreversibility in the development of resistance, a moment when the principal task becomes to develop and secure what has been achieved by the struggle (Benasayag & Sztulwark 213). Counterpower is diffuse and multiple. It displaces the question of power from the centrality it has historically enjoyed, because its struggle is “against the powers such as they act in our situations” (MTD of Solano and Colectivo Situaciones, Hipótesis 891 104). To be on the side of potencia is to recognize that the state and the market originate at the level of the values we embrace and the bonds that connect us to others.

Potencia defines the material dimension of the encounter of bodies, while poder is a level characterized by idealization, representation, and normalization. Colectivo Situaciones avoid a name to define their political identity, which would freeze the fluid material multiplicity of militant research by subordinating it to the one-dimensional nature of idealizations. “We are not ‘autonomists’, ‘situationists’, or anything ending with ‘-ist’” they once told us. Identities have normalizing effects: they establish models, they place multiplicity under control, they reduce the multiple dimensions of life to the one dimension of an idealization. They make an exception with Guevarism, because Che Guevara clearly preferred to stay on the side of potencia and opposed those who calmed down concrete struggles in the name of ideal recipes on how to achieve a communist society.[4]

An investigation into the forms of potencia and the social relations that produce it can only be done from a standpoint that systematically embraces doubt and ignorance. If we recognize that the practical thought of struggles is an activity of bodies, we have to recognize as well—with Spinoza—that nobody knows what a body can do. To do research in the realm of potencia—to investigate that which is alive and multiple—militant researchers have to abandon their previous certainties, their desire to encounter pure subjects, and the drive to recuperate their practice as an ideal of coherence and consistency. In this regard, one might say that Colectivo Situaciones seek to concretely embody two Zapatista slogans: “asking we walk,” and “we make the road by walking,” such that, the act of questioning and collective reflection is part of the process of constructing power.

improve your skills

check out tons of fantastic interpreter training resources here

such as how to take notes for consecutive - something not enough activist interpreters do!

my number one tip: ALWAYS have a notepad on you - you never know when you will have to jump into interpreting in social change settings.

number one sign of an amateur interpreter: they're doing consecutive without a notepad in hand.

(ok, maybe number two after someone saying "she said ...")

conejo

conejo: loophole

Que vivan los estudiantes!

"On November 9, Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos seemed to retreat in the face of a massive nationwide student strike that has lasted since October 12. Santos offered to withdraw his “educational reform” bill from the Colombian congress and sit down to negotiate with the student movement.

Students responded with a massive demonstration today that closed all of the major thoroughfares of the city. (See photos from El Tiempo, the main newspaper of Colombia.)

Speaking at the main demonstration in the Plaza Bolivar, surrounded by the Presidential Palace and the Capitol, former senator Piedad Cordoba warned students, “The proposal of Santos has a loophole. Students must continue their national strike … this mobilisation is a victory for mothers and fathers of families, for campesinos and for victims of the state.” (“La propuesta de Santos tiene conejo. Los estudiantes deben continuar el paro nacional … esta movilización es una victoria de madres y padres de familia, de campesinos y víctimas del Estado”, El Espectador, November 11)."

read the rest of this article here

ally

ally: aliado

this is an obvious one, but what may not be obvious is how the term gets used in movements in the US and Canada (and the UK?) to mean "people who recognize the unearned privilege they receive from society’s patterns of injustice and take responsibility for changing these patterns. Allies include men who work to end sexism, white people who work to end racism, heterosexual people who work to end heterosexism, able-bodied people who work to end ableism, and so on."

if you have a sense that your listeners or readers do not understand this movement use of the term, it is worth explaining.

(this definition of ally is from this article on tips for white allies in the occupy movement)

why interpreters matter

great way to promote the use of professional interps, way to go Texas Association of Healthcare Interpreters and Translators!

fun ten minute animated history of the English language

This is the first of 10 one minute videos - the next in the series should pop up when this finishes playing or you can open it in youtube and they appear as links on the right.

mainstream media

mainstream media: los grandes medios
(corporate media: medios corporativos)

any thoughts on how to render the slogan "be the media"?

for a fun critique of the mainstream media coverage of the occupy movement see the video below

militancia de investigación

due to dissertation deadlines this week I am reposting part one of this brilliant translators introduction by By Nate Holdren and Sebastián Touza:

The translation of this significant article, a fundamental piece insofar as it lays bare the values and principles Colectivo Situaciones invoke in their definition of themselves as militants, calls for a reflection on our role as translators. It is our hope that this English version of the article will find resonances among those who practice a politics that is unseparable from thinking in their own situation. But we feel that it is important to share with the reader our urge to dispel any mythical (mis)understanding of the transparency of language. We share with Colectivo Situaciones the conviction that the abstraction involved in the attempt to communicate inevitably impoverishes experience. Translation adds one more layer of abstraction. In this sense, we assume the full significance of the Italian adage traduttore, tradittore. Not because we intend to betray anybody, but because the acknowledgement that every translation is a betrayal is our attempt to keep faith with the concrete situation in which the experience being communicated unfolds.

In this introduction, we would like to go through some of the difficulties we had in doing the translation. We hope that explaining the decisions we made will provide some steps toward bringing the reader closer to the work of Colectivo Situaciones.

We faced our first difficulty when trying to translate the title. We were unsure how to translate the term militancia de investigación. This phrase can be rendered into English as either ‘research militancy’ or ‘militant research’. At the risk of taking words too seriously (always a risk in translation), it may be useful to spend some time on these two possible translations. ‘Militant research’ implies a continuity with other examples of militant research, those presented in other parts of this volume and elsewhere. ‘Research militancy’ may sound strange to the English speaker’s ear and it is less immediately clear what the term means.

The grammatical difference between these two phrases is a matter of which word defines the activity and which word qualifies it, which word will be the predicate of the other. The difference seems to be one of emphasis. Does the Spanish phrase refer to knowledge production which happens to be radical in some way (militant research)? Or does it refer to radical activism which happens to take the form of knowledge production (research militancy)?

Our indecision brought us to ask Colectivo Situaciones which one of the two expressions they felt more comfortable with. To our surprise—or perhaps not—the response was “with both.” “We think of our practice as a double movement: to create ways of being militants that escape the political certainties established a priori and embrace politics as research (in this case, it would be ‘research militancy’), and, at the same time, to invent forms of thinking and producing concepts that reject academic procedures, breaking away from the image of an object to be known and putting at the centre subjective experience (in this case, it would be ‘militant research’).”

Situaciones came together as a collective in the late 1990s. Previously they had been involved in El Mate, a student group notable for creating the Che Guevara Free Lecturership, an experiment oriented to recuperating the memory of the generation of Argentinean and Latin American revolutionaries of the 1960s and 1970s that began at the faculty of social sciences of the University of Buenos Aires and quickly spread throughout several universities in Argentina and abroad. The Argentinean social landscape in which the men and women of Situaciones forged their ideas was a desert swept by neoliberal winds, in which only a few movements of resistance could stand up by themselves. Those were times in which dilettante postmodern thinkers had come to the conclusion that social change was a relic from the past and in which people involved in politics could only see their activity through rarely questioned models.

Research militancy was the response to the need to rebuild the links between thought and the new forms of political involvement that were rapidly becoming part of the Argentinean reality. In the prologue “On Method” of the book Colectivo Situaciones wrote together with the unemployed workers’ movement of Solano, the authors distinguish research militancy from three other relations to knowledge.[1] On the one hand, academic research inevitably reifies those it constructs as objects. Academics cannot help leaving outside the scope of their investigation the function of attributing meaning, values, interests, and rationalities of the subject who does the research. On the other hand, traditional political activists—those involved in parties or party-like organizations—usually hold that their commitment and involvement makes their relation to knowledge more advanced than the work done by academics. But their activity is not less objectifying, in the sense that it always approaches the struggles from a previously constituted knowledge framework. Struggles are thus regarded not for their value in themselves, but rather in terms of their contribution to something other than themselves—the socialist or communist society awaiting at the end of the road. A third figure, the humanitarian activist, also relates to others in an instrumental fashion—in the justification and funding of NGOs (non-governmental organizations)—and takes the world as static, not subject to being changed radically (thus, the best one can hope for is the alleviation of the worst abuses).

Research militancy does not distinguish between thinking and doing politics. For, insofar as we reserve the notion of thought for the thinking/doing activity that deposes the logic by which existing models acquire meaning, thinking is immediately political. On the other hand, if we reserve the concept of politics for the struggle for freedom and justice, all politics involves thinking, because there are forms of thinking against established models implicit in every radical practice—a thought people carry out with their bodies. ....

full article is here

of course the easy way to render this term if you're in a rush, is with the more common in English term "activist research" - but what a treat to take the time to think it through like this! by the way, see my previous post about the term militante

resguardo

resguardo: indigenous collective property

I have been rendering this term as reservation, but I like this, especially since they don't have the same history, legal status, or politics as US reservations. This term is how it was translated in the article:

M. Chaves and M. Zambrano, “From blanqueamiento to reindigenización: Paradoxes of mestizaje and multiculturalism in contemporary Colombia,” Revista Europea de estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe 80 (2006): 5–23.

Most of the current resguardos in Colombia were only recently recognized. After the passage of the new constitution in 1991 31.3 million hectares, over a quarter of the country’s total territory, was legally granted and titled as resguardos (Chaves and Zambrano, p. 9).

moving video in need of subtitles

watch this gorgeous video, it will leave you inspired. maybe even inspired to subtitle?



Many thanks to Michael Joseph for the translation below - it would be great if someone were inspired to put this up as subtitles! good volunteer experience if you've never done it before. instructions here Let us know if you do it!

Soy, soy lo que dejaron, Soy las sobras de lo que te robaron,
Un pueblo escondido en la cima, Mi piel es de cuero por eso aguata cualquier clima,
Soy una fábrica de humo, Mano de obra campesina para tu consumo,
En el medio del verano, El amor en los tiempos del cólera,
Mi hermano!

I am, I am what was left behind, I am the leftovers of what they stole from you,

I am a town hidden on the peak, My skin is leather so it can handle any climate,

I am a smoke factory, Peasant labor for your consumption,

In the middle of the summer, Love in the time of cholera,

My brother!

Soy el que nace y el día que muere, Con los mejores atardeceres,
Soy el desarrollo en carne viva, Un discurso sin saliva,
Las caras más bonitas que he conocido, Soy la fotografía de un desaparecido,
La sangre dentro de tus venas, Soy un pedazo de tierra que vale la pena,
Una canasta con frijoles.

I am the one who is born and the day that dies, With the best sunsets,

I am development in flesh and blood, A speech with no saliva,

The prettiest faces I have ever known, I am a photograph of a disappeared person,

The blood in your veins, I am a plot of land that is worth it,

A basket full of beans.

Soy Maradona contra Inglaterra Anotándole dos goles.
Soy lo que sostiene mi bandera, La espina dorsal de mi planeta, en mi cordillera.
Soy lo que me enseño mi padre, El que no quiere a su patria no quiere a su madre.
Soy América Latina un pueblo sin piernas pero que camina.

I am Maradona against England, Scoring two goals,

I am what holds up my flag, The spine of my planet, along my mountain range

I am what my father taught me, S/he who does not love their country does not love their mother

I am Latin America, a people without legs but who walk

Tú no puedes comprar al viento,
Tú no puedes comprar al sol
Tú no puedes comprar la lluvia,
Tú no puedes comprar al calor.
Tú no puedes comprar las nubes,
Tú no puedes comprar mi alegría,
Tú no puedes comprar mis dolores.

Chorus:

You can’t buy the wind,

You can’t buy the sun,

You can’t buy the rain,

You can’t buy the heat.

You can’t buy the clouds,

You can’t buy my happiness,

You can’t buy my pain.

=

Tengo los lagos, tengo los ríos, Tengo mis dientes pa cuando me sonrío,
La nieve que maquilla mis montañas, Tengo el sol que me seca y la lluvia que me baña,
Un desierto embriagado con peyote, Un trago de pulque para cantar con los coyotes,
Todo lo que necesito!

I have the lakes, I have the rivers, I have my teeth for when I smile,

The snow that adorns my mountains, I have the sun that dries me and the rain that bathes me,

A desert drunk on peyote, a shot of pulque to sing with the coyotes,

All I need!

Tengo a mis pulmones respirando azul clarito,
La altura que sofoca, Soy las muelas de mi boca mascando coca,
El otoño con sus hojas desmayadas, Los versos escritos bajo las noches estrelladas,
Una viña repleta de uvas, Un cañaveral bajo el sol en cuba,
Soy el mar Caribe que vigila las casitas, Haciendo rituales de agua bendita,
El viento que peina mi cabello, Soy todos los santos que cuelgan de mi cuello,
El jugo de mi lucha no es artificial porque el abono de mi tierra es natural.

I have my lungs that are breathing clear blue,

The altitude that smothers, I am my jaws chewing coca,

The autumn with its fainted leaves, Verses written under starry skies,

A vineyard full of grapes, a sugarcane field under the sun in Cuba,

I am the Caribbean sea watching over the little houses, Doing rituals of holy water,

The wind that combs my hair, I am all the saints that hang from my neck,

The juice of my struggle is not artificial because my land’s fertilizer is natural.

We are walking, we are drawing the way!

[Chorus in Spanish and Portuguese]

Trabajo bruto pero con orgullo, Aquí se comparte lo mío es tuyo,
Este pueblo no se ahoga con maruyos, Y si se derrumba yo lo reconstruyo,
Tampoco pestañeo cuando te miro, Para que te recuerdes de mi apellido,
La operación cóndor invadiendo mi nido, Perdono pero nunca olvido, oye!

Brute work but with pride, Here we share, what’s mine is yours,

These people don’t drown in the waves, And if it collapses I’ll rebuild it,

I don’t blink when I look at you either, So that you’ll remember my last name,

Operation Condor invading my nest, I forgive but I’ll never forget!

Vamos caminado, aquí se respira lucha.
Vamos caminando, yo canto porque se escucha.
Vamos caminando, aquí estamos de pie.
Que viva Latinoamérica.
No puedes comprar mi vida!

We are walking, here we breathe struggle,

We are walking, I sing because you listen,

We are walking, here we are standing up,

Long live Latin America.

You can’t buy my life!

---

traitors?

Translators get a bad rap as traitors. Quite the opposite, to translate is to be an ally.

As social justice interpreters in particular we amplify the voices of those less likely to be heard. (no, not the voiceless thank you)

We interpret not so that some can 'listen in' but so that everyone can more fully participate, because we are stronger as a movement when we bring together our multiple perspectives and different knowledges.

Multilingual movements are stronger movements.

do no harm

do no harm: acción sin daño

Not quite literal, but this is how folks in Colombia who are working with Mary Anderson's framework are translating the term. Her book is titled "Do no harm: how aid can support peace - or war". A free handbook with the seven steps she suggests to ensure you do no harm is available at
http://www.cdainc.com/publications/dnh/do_no_harm_handbook.php

Her *entire* book, translated into Spanish (as Accion sin daño), is available here.

Many thanks to my friend Ricardo Chaparro who teaches at the especilización en Acción Sin Daño de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia and who writes, "La página web de la especialización, para quien le interese, es: www.especializacionpaz.info

Dicho enlace [book above] hace parte de la Biblioteca Digital en Violencia Sociopolitica, Acción Sin Daño y Construcción de Paz "Bivipas", que es la biblioteca que intentamos construir desde la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, y cuyo link es el siguiente:

www.bivipas.info"

Gracias Ricardo!

Activante

The movement to close the US Army's School of the Americas has come up with this great neologism - see their description of it at the bottom of this plug, reposted from here

Become an Activante* with SOA Watch in Latin America or Washington, DC

Youth leadership in the SOA Watch movement is growing and getting things done. It is the youth of our movement who led the effective Adios Uribe campaign, facilitated the South-North Encuentro that brought together activists from 19 countries, directed the soon-to-be released SOA Watch film, and organized delegations to Honduras. It is the youth who carry the weight in organizing the upcoming massive SOA Watch November Vigil at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia (Nov.18-20, 2011).

Young people have also brought our movement to see the necessity of working from both sides of the border to confront militarization. And, of the importance of crossing over borders to be effective in resisting militarization and promoting a culture of peace.

And, in doing so, their own lives have been forever changed, shaped into global citizens who recognize their own powerful potential as they work together with others.

We would like to invite others to join in this rich experience of becoming an SOA Watch activante* in one of four locations in the Americas. (read on here for further description)

* The term activante was coined by our first international team of young activists, who did not identify with the term "intern." They flipped the Spanish version of the word, pasante – associated to the Spanish pasivo, passive – to its opposite: activante. This term is a good reflection of what the role calls for: energy, leadership, initiative, dynamism, and creativity.