Translating Contemporary Mexican Texts: Fidelity to Alterity (Berkeley Insights in Linguistics and Semiotics)

Translating Contemporary Mexican Texts: Fidelity to Alterity addresses an area of research that has received little if any attention in translation theory: the translation into English of contact neologisms and code-switching in Mexican Spanish. The translator of Mexican texts is invited to review the historical background and the sociopolitical and linguistic factors that have led to the emergence of new varieties of English and Spanish, in particular the mixed varieties and code-switching common to parts of Mexico and the United States, often known collectively as Spanglish. Since translation should not consist of effacing the Other, Translating Contemporary Mexican Texts provides conceptual tools and practical advice for carrying out foreignizing translations that allow for a degree of preservation of linguistic and cultural differences through the employment of heterogeneous discourse.