Please join us for the PAMLA Presidential Address, “The Stories We Retranslate,” on Friday, November 8, at 4:50 pm in Crosby Ballroom North. PAMLA President and Professor Emeritus Juan Delgado explores translation as seen in three community art projects.
Delgado will discuss translation as a vital process for impacting local communities, focusing on translation and memory, on the working conditions in the citrus industry and on the importance of community narratives during a health crisis. He is interested in the sociological, ethical, and cultural aspects of translation. With that in mind, he will share how he came to the role of translator and interpreter, linking translation to street art and describing translators as the producers of texts, artwork, competing stories, and alternative histories. He hopes to illustrate that the translator’s decision-making process is not so much about neutrality, but about what values the translator decides to re-translate and share. His presentation is divided into three sections, and if you want additional information about the three community projects, please visit the following websites:
Juan Delgado is Professor Emeritus in the English Department at California State University, San Bernardino, where, in addition to his professorial duties, he chaired the English and Communication Studies Departments and served as the university’s interim provost. His collections of poetry include Green Web (1994), published by the University of Georgia Press and selected by poet Dara Weir for the Contemporary Poetry Prize; El Campo (1998), a collaboration with the Chicano painter Simon Silva and published by Capra Press; and Rush of Hands (2003), published by the University of Arizona Press. Vital Signs (2013) was a collaboration with photographer Thomas McGovern and won the Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award. His most recent accomplishments include art installations at the Cheech Art Museum and the Riverside Art Museum. He recently won the California Established Artist Award. He lives in Forest Falls, CA with wife, Jean. They have three children, Anna, Marco and Clara, and five grandchildren: Asher, Georgia, Olive, Raen, and Maisie.