Algo más que construyendo identidades

Over the last decades several studies have appeared about the role of translation and interpreters in the process of European colonization of the Americas and Asia from the 15th century onwards. Placed in the most generic area of the History of Translation or, more specifically, in the area of missionary and colonial linguistics, these works have not only been revealing the magnitude of the realized works but have also approached the configurator role of the process of colonization. In the area of the Spanish colonization, translation studies in the American panorama are much more studied than its Asian counterpart; i.e. Asian missionary linguistic works. In the present paper we shall analyze the theoretical dimension of these works, with particular focus on transcultural or intercultural aspects. Attention will be paid to linguistic and meta-linguistic aspects. We will study the work of Fray Andrés López (1690) who was an important author of this period, due to his theoretical insights. Apart from this, his work is significant since he was aware that the action of the translator could have consequences in the culture of the indigenous people.