Earth Month 2024: Film Highlight

Last year during Earth Month, I shared several conservation-related headlines that caught my eye. This year I’m sharing a film I saw on PBS called “A Thousand Pines.”

PBS has been celebrating Earth Month with a collection of films and shows that address conservation, wildlife on land and underwater, notable people who work in the climate arena, and more. The film “A Thousand Pines,” caught my eye because it tells the story of workers who come to the U.S. from Oaxaca, Mexico, and I’ve spent a lot of time in Oaxaca. The documentary follows guest workers in the temporary work visa program who spend several months every year in the U.S. planting pine trees on lands to be reforested. I think the film does an excellent job showing how teams carry out the job, what it’s like for team members day in and day out, and the relationships with their families back home. This film also inspired me to learn more about how these “forest management” programs manage (whether properly or improperly) large swaths of land across the U.S.

Film: “Translators”

A short film called “Translators” recently came out, and it’s worth a watch. This film profiles young people who help their families navigate life in the U.S. by interpreting and translating. It’s easy to forget how much some kids do for their families when they have parents who do not speak English. After watching this film, I felt an immense respect for these kids and what they do for their families.

Image courtesy of Park Pictures.

Books for 2024

Welcome to 2024 and a new year of reading! There are three books I very much want to read this year. The first is How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair. Fellow translator Corinne McKay highly recommended it in her “books of 2023” roundup.

I also want to read Tongolele no sabía bailar by Sergio Ramírez. I don’t know if it’s been translated into English yet. Ramírez is a Nicaraguan writer and a winner of the prestigious Cervantes Prize.

A third book I want to read is Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O’Donohue. The 25th anniversary edition of this book came out in 2023. I love O’Donohue’s book To Bless the Space Between Us and have been wanting to read more of his writing.

Let me know what you are reading!

The Meaning of “Patrimonio”

The spirit of the Spanish word “patrimonio” can be difficult to translate into English, but this term is essential to understanding the culture of many Spanish-speaking communities. Let’s dive into its meaning!

“Patrimonio” is a concept woven into the fabric of Spanish and Latin American cultures. A simple translation of “patrimonio” would be “heritage” or “assets.” For example, a cathedral in Mexico City is a part of that country’s “patrimonio cultural“ or “cultural heritage.” However, the concept of “patrimonio” goes beyond this simple definition.

A country’s shared heritage or assets might include the arts, historical architecture, natural spaces, and more. A key concept is that these assets are shared—and cared for—by all. They are not only physical spaces but intellectual and artistic ideas and history. “Patrimonio” characterizes a society’s way of life and sense of identity. In Mexico, for example, this includes the vestiges of pre-Hispanic peoples, colonial society and modern Mexico. “Patrimonio” is found is an indigenous weaving, a towering cathedral, and the writings of Octavio Paz.

Natural, open spaces are also seen as part of a country’s shared heritage and assets. In Spain, this idea is gaining momentum among organizations that preserve and protect natural, wild spaces. For example, Europarc Spain works to promote Spain’s open space and protected areas. Their campaign “Nuestros Espacios Protegidos” (“Our Protected Spaces”) emphasizes the idea of open spaces as something for everyone to enjoy and everyone’s responsibility.

For a recent news item about cultural heritage, here’s an article about UNESCO including the bolero as part of Mexico’s “intangible cultural heritage!”

El Bolero ya es Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial

Interspecies Communication: Can We Talk to Whales?

Whether it’s the idea of contact with extraterrestrials, sign language with primates or practicing new tricks with the family dog, humans are fascinated by the idea of communicating with other species. For her recent New Yorker article “Talk to Me,” science writer and journalist Elizabeth Kolbert traveled to Dominica to report on CETI: The Cetacean Translation Initiative. Kolbert reports: “CETI represents the most ambitious, the most technologically sophisticated, and the most well-funded effort ever made to communicate with another species.”

Sperm whales use a series of clicks called “codas” to communicate with each other. For example, here is a “conversation” between “Roger” and “Rita,” two adult females near Dominica:

Roger: 1 + 1 + 3

Rita: 1 + 1 + 3, 1 + 1 + 3

Roger: 9 Increasing (9 clicks with ever-increasing intervals between each click)

Rita: 1 + 1 + 3

Roger: 10 Increasing

Rita: 1 + 1 + 3, 1 + 1 + 3

And so on…

The sperm whales around Dominica have a repertoire of around 26 codas. The CETI team aims to place temporary recording devices on sperm whales in the region to record and track patterns of codas. Like ChatGPT digests millions of webpages and has become incredibly proficient at predicting language patterns to come up with answers and creative output, so CETI hopes that a computer model can learn to digest and predict codas, thus creating communication a whale would understand.

The idea of communicating with a whale in this way is interesting, but I was asking myself, “What’s the endgame? To help them? To help ourselves? Create increased empathy or knowledge?” I agree with Kolbert that the late biologist Roger Payne has a good answer. Payne was known for recording humpback whale “songs” that were released as an LP. These “songs” inspired empathy in humans and helped lead the way in the fight to rescue certain whale species from extinction. Payne was an early supporter of the CETI project. He said, “Inspiration is the key… If we could communicate with animals, ask them questions and receive answers—no matter how simple those questions and answers might turn out to be—the world might soon be moved enough to at least start the process of halting our runaway destruction of life.”

Read the full article here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/09/11/can-we-talk-to-whales

Image courtesy of: http://www.insidescience.org

What I’m Working On

Greetings to everyone out there. Here is what I’ve been working on over the past few months…

So far in 2023, most of my translation projects have been in the agriculture/environment, education, legal, and health and wellness fields.

Hope you’re enjoying summertime!