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percent of our submissions
being written in the language
of Cervantes. We’d just take
a large financial loss to do
so because connecting with
the ideal Spanish-language
reader is currently so difficult.
Thus to reach a broader
audience we either publish an
English-language translation
to accompany the Spanish
original between the same
covers, that is a bilingual
edition; or we publish a
separate English-language
translation in order for the
book to get reviewed and
noticed before we publish
the original Spanish edition.
This goes completely contrary
to the norm in commercial
publishing, which issues
simultaneous editions of a few
renowned Latin-American
authors—but up until recently,
the large presses were not
even issuing Spanish-language
editions. In most cases, we
commission translations to
professionals with whom
the authors have a good
relationship, and then our inhouse
editors, who represent
a variety of national Spanishlanguage
dialects, edit the
translations.
In our program to recover
the written culture of Latinos
in the United States, from
the 1600s up to 1960, we
maintain a vigorous English
translation program for our
anthologies and separate
book editions. The purpose
My Recommendations
Dante’s Ballad by Eduardo
González Viaña, translated from
the Spanish by Susan Giersbach-
Rascón.
A poetic and myth-based novel
heavily influenced by popular
music in Spanish and rendered
beautifully by Rascón, who has
managed to produce credible
renditions of popular songs.
The Valley by Rolando Hinojosa,
translated from the Spanish by
the author.
Hinojosa is probably the most
fluently bilingual author writing
in the United States. He is able to
take local dialects of South Texas
and recreate them in his English
originals and vice versa.
Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders
by Alicia Gaspar de Alba,
translated from the English into
Spanish by Rosario Sanmiguel.
The novel set on the El Paso-
Juarez border is expertly
translated by Sanmiguel, a
novelist and lifelong resident of
the area and familiar with the
dialects and culture of the border.
The Art of Empathy: Celebrating Literature in Translation
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