Celebrando las Raíces (Extra Credit)

Rachael Hilderbrand

Professor Craig

World Politics

12-3-2011

Celebrando las Raíces

An event celebrating the different nationalities in Washington D.C. was held this past Wednesday, November 30^th, at the National Museum of the American Indian. The event titled: “Celebrando los Raíces, Creando Comunidad: An Evening of Music and Bilingual Poetry”, was sponsored by the Smithsonian Latino Center and was free to the public; it celebrated the Hispanic Community through the Arts. The goal of the event was to bring together the English and Spanish language but through an expression of Hispanic culture, poetry and music. Over nine native Spanish-speaking poets attended the event and presented their own poetry. Each poet read their poem first in Spanish, and then read the translation of the poem in English so that everyone could enjoy their work as well as understand it. After each poem, a small Latin American band played a song in Spanish that had a similar meaning to the poem.

The poets were not all representing one specific Spanish speaking country; instead they were a representation of many different countries and cultures. Poets from Spain, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Mexico and many other places presented an important part of their lives through their poetry. There was even a poet, Consuelo Hernández, who came from Colombia and is now a Professor at American University. Although each poet came from a different region, the meaning behind his or her poetry was very similar. Struggle was a reoccurring theme in many of the poems. The struggles of everyday life, such as poverty; the struggles of inequalities in our society; the struggles of adapting to new lifestyles; or even the struggle of finding who you are as an individual or who you want to be in your future was a common theme. Poets expressed their struggles and their success to overcome these difficulties. One poet, Quique Avilés, expressed how he often is confused with his own identity because his tongue is parted in two languages, two cultures, and two lifestyles. Quique Avilés showed us that two completely different things can come together to be one; he showed that the Latin Community in D.C. should not be separated but rather incorporated into the lifestyle of D.C.

I noticed in Quique Avilés poem titled, “Mi lengua esta partida en dos” that the translations from English to Spanish often times take out the true meaning of the poem. His poem was not the only one to have this setback; most of the poets faced this difficulty in their translations. Yes, the translation follows what he is saying word for word, but the meaning behind what he is saying is lost. His emotion found in the Spanish text is lost when the poem is translated to English. One who reads the English translation instead of the original poem in Spanish will be able to pick up on the general significance of the poem, but the emotion, passion and individualism of the poem is lost. I believe that the same would be true if someone was to translate an English poem into Spanish, you would be able to see the meaning of the poem but what is driving the poem to have such emotion is lost in translation.

Although the event was predominately focused on Latin American culture, the issues expressed through the poems and songs were universal. Whether you spoke Spanish or English, the event was insightful and relatable. The Smithsonian Latino Center did a very good job of taking two languages and cultures and bringing them together into one place to celebrate our similarities and differences through this bilingual event.