Los procesos de filtración en los documentos guaraníes: los intérpretes y las traducciones en el Paraguay y el Río de la Plata colonial (siglos XVI-XVIII)

Abstract

In the pluriethnic and plurilinguistic territories of the Spanish empire, translating from Indigenous languages to Spanish in legal and bureaucratic contexts was common, but few have studied the varied processes of translation. Colonial Paraguay presents an interesting case study in translation given the extensive bilingualism among many creole Spaniards and monolingualism among most Guaraní peoples. In this article, I review three translation types: translation with no-translation, suspect translations, and a summary-translation. Each example reflects the varied modes of translation in the region, the politics of translation, and the ways that translations complement a cultural analysis of accompanying Guaraní-language texts. I include an original translation of a 1761 Guaraní-authored letter from the Nuestra Señora de Fe mission town and its summary-translation.

Keywords

• Guaraní
• mission towns
• translation
• empire