I had been working as a court interpreter for some time before I learned the true meaning of “Se me hizo fácil.” It was not something that I had heard in the East Coast where I had lived before moving to Arizona (where, at the time, there were relatively few Mexicans) and, certainly, I had never heard it in my native island of Puerto Rico. After moving to Arizona, where I first heard the expression, I didn’t pay much attention to the meaning of the phrase.
However, after becoming a freelance interpreter in 1998, I started to hear it more and more during witnesses’ testimony, and realized I didn’t really understand its meaning. It was a simple and very common Mexican expression which I had been translating literally, and then, all of a sudden, during a workshop at an ATA Annual Conference, I learned that this expression was more complex than I had originally thought. There were several possible renditions: one was “I really didn’t think about it;” another was “I didn’t think it through” and yet another “I just didn’t think about the consequences.” One thing was for sure; the previous translation “it was easy for me” that I had used in prior occasions was completely inappropriate.
In deportation and criminal proceedings, perhaps more so than in other areas of the judiciary, because of what’s at stake (a person’s life, liberty and his or her entire family’s life, rather than merely money, as is the case in monetary civil proceedings), an interpreter’s choice of words can make a world of difference and make or break a case. If you are presenting your case to a judge, and you are questioned as to why you have committed a crime, telling a judge that “it was easy for me to do it” is pretty much what in English would be considered shooting yourself in the foot, right?
I approached some of my fellow interpreters and some judges to find out what they thought about a response like “it was easy for me.” Responses varied. One judge told me that the first time he heard this he was shocked by the defendant. Another thought that at the very least, the words had a contemptuous tone, but that he had learned that the phrase was not used in the literal sense but rather the person was expressing a sense of “ignorance” of the consequences of his or her actions. To my surprise, he added that a Mexican judge had enlightened him regarding the real meaning of the original expression se me hizo fácil and that it was all about cultural awareness. I almost fainted. Had the judge just said “cultural awareness”? So, I began my own quest for enlightenment if you will. I was really curious about colloquialisms and regionalisms, especially Mexicanisms since a large percentage of the people I interpret for in Arizona are Mexican. While I was hoping to find an extensive compendium with a substantial amount of information, I was disappointed to find few resources that contained extensive or comprehensive studies, glossaries or dictionaries of Mexican idiomatic expressions. Hamel’s Bilingual Dictionary of Mexican Spanish, published by Bilingual Book Press, offers approximately 7,000 terms, but does not contain idiomatic expressions. I started looking for other resources and found a handful of written materials. The following list contains dictionaries, both monolingual and bilingual, in this area:
- Diccionario breve de mexicanismos, G. Gómez de Silva
- Diccionario de terminología jurídica mexicana, J.F. Becerra
- Diccionario del español usual en México, L.F. Lara
- Dictionary of Mexican Cultural Code Words, B.L. De Mente
- Dictionary of Mexicanismos, D. McKenna
Additionally, I found out that one of the few and most comprehensive studies on Spanish regionalisms throughout the Spanish-speaking world not focused exclusively on Mexicanisms but rather on lexical dialectology (variation in vocabulary) was done by one of our most esteemed colleagues, Andre Moskowitz. Andre has been interested in language variation in Spanish since 1985 and has been collecting data since 1990. He recommends the following works on Mexican Spanish:
- Diccionario inicial del español de México, Raúl Ávila
- Diccionario del español usual en México, Luis Fernando Lara Ramos
It is important to mention that Mr. Moskowitz has compiled his own dictionary of Mexican Spanish called Instrucciones para vivir (y entender) en México / Claves para descifrar el código azteca / Un diccionario del español mexicano. I had the opportunity to speak with Andre during an ATA conference and this is what he had to say on the subject. “You have raised an important issue. I believe the phrase in question, se me hizo fácil… has been debated a lot among Spanish-language interpreters, not only in immigration court but also in criminal courts and other courts throughout the Nation. I am hesitant to advocate for a single solution, but whatever solution one uses, I agree that including ‘it was easy’ is most likely going to be a very poor solution as it will give the judge and/or jury the impression that the witness, respondent or defendant was trying to take advantage of a situation when that is not the intent that is conveyed by his/her use of the phrase “se me hizo fácil.”
CULTURAL TRANSLATION
It is our responsibility, our obligation, to prevent misunderstandings caused by misperceptions.
Culture is behind everything we do or say. Therefore, in the translation and interpreting fields there is ample opportunity for misunderstandings and poor communication. Both will have very negative effects on your career and your business. Make sure you are well informed and have the knowledge and skills necessary to stay competitive and on top of your game.
In order to be effective interpreters and translators of an international language such as Spanish, it is absolutely necessary to immerse ourselves in the multiple cultures and become familiar with different regionalisms and dialectal colloquialisms of the populations we serve. Otherwise, we risk failing as communicators. We should all strive to increase our knowledge and cultural awareness of our target audiences.
The result will be a much clearer and in-depth understanding of the language, in addition to respect, mutual trust and clearer lines of communication. It is our responsibility, our obligation, to prevent misunderstandings caused by misperceptions.
Make it a habit to learn one new word —or more— every day!
The Traveling Interpreter 