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Article published In:
Translation and Interpreting Studies
Vol. 17:2 (2022) ► pp.179–198

Translating in the contact zone

The case of the one-and-a halfers

ORCID logo | University of Salamanca

The purpose of this article is to analyze the hybrid language used in the U.S. by a generation who think brown and write brown. I am referring to the so-called one-and-a-halfers, a generation that includes writers such as Gloria Anzaldúa, Cherríe Moraga, Sandra Cisneros, Pat Mora, Ilan Stavans, Ana Lydia Vega, Ana Castillo, Helena Viramontes, Esmeralda Santiago, or Tato Laviera, to name but a few. I aim to analyze how many migrants and refugees use language in a way that destroys consensus. It is in these spaces where the migration movements of the multiple souths talk back in a weird language which the Establishment fears. In these circumstances, translation becomes a tool to raise questions that disturb the universal promises of monolingualism.

Keywords: translation, hybrid literature, migrations, one-and-a-halfers
Article outline
  • Living in the contact zone, using a mestizo language
    • Living in the contact zone
    • Using a mestizo language
  • The role of translation: Living in translation, living desdoblados
  • Concluding remarks
  • References
Published online: 14 September 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.20098.vid
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