Testimonials: What people are saying about Guerrilla Translation
“As a publisher of a US-based international online magazine about sharing and the commons, I can’t say enough about Guerrilla Translation. Not only do they share translated material freely with the public, but they do an excellent job while bringing vital international news to our attention. In this way, they are much more than highly skilled translators — they catalyze positive social change.”
“Guerrilla Translation are changing the landscape of international idea exchange by simply making our cultural boundaries more porous. It’s easy to underestimate the value of new eyes and minds on one’s work, and I have been profoundly influenced by Spanish readers who had been deemed inconsequential by the marketplace. The folks at Guerrilla Translation are themselves a corrective force on not just the publishing industry but also on global culture.”
“When Guerrilla Translation first reached out to translate one of my pieces, I was both honored and humbled by their ask. But I knew very little about them: which was my loss, clearly. As time passed, I was impressed by their commitment to the work and the relationships they were building across space. In a time of global crises and systemic violence, it’s easy to feel disconnected from one another, and overwhelmed by all that needs our attention and care. What I’ve witnessed is a community of translators going far beyond their written tasks, to make connections and bridge the gap, and to make accessible critical analysis, solutions, and experiences to many. All with grace, humility and a willingness to question and improve along the way. Fuerza!”
Henia BelaliaAuthorActivistPeaceful UprisingDeep Roots United Front
“Guerrilla Translation is at the vanguard of a very new sort of activism and collaboration. Its sensitive translations and intelligent curation of fresh ideas from around the world are opening up new vistas of imagination. By breaking down the barriers of language, Guerrilla Translation is helping people discover new strategic opportunities and nourishing growing collaborations among a transnational community of change-agents. I find this extremely encouraging and hopeful.”
“The P2P Foundation and myself have been enjoying for some time now the extraordinary qualitative translations of Guerrilla Translation. The translations are always true to the source, not just to the letter but in the spirit. Through this consistently professional work, Guerrilla Translation has played a pivotal role as a bridge between the Anglo-Saxon and Hispanic worlds, translating quality texts on the emerging of the various peer-to- peer, sharing, and commons-oriented social movements. Guerrilla Translation has thereby been a catalyst and accelerator of social trends and of the reconstruction of power social movements.”
“Here is what I think about Guerrilla Translation. It is on the cutting edge of the global People Power movement, making accessible ideas that disrupt the dominant narratives of our culture. It goes beyond traditional leftist critiques (which actually fit into dominant narratives in various ways). I love how committed you guys are, devoting huge amounts of time and energy into the project even with no foreseeable means to ever earn money from it. The project is very deeply in the gift. I resonate strongly with the themes of culture-jamming and creative nonviolence. I think it is SO important that the writings you translate reach Spanish-speaking audiences, because they are so much more actionable than they are in the central hegemonic powers. My own culture has so much inertia, so much investment in the status quo, that it will be very hard for us to change. That is less the case in peripheral countries like Spain and the countries of Latin America. I think Guerrilla Translation could grow into a key conduit bringing revolutionary, non-commercializable ideas to places they can have a big effect. Traditional publishing certainly won’t do it, and we need this kind of cross-fertilization.”
“I love the Guerilla Translation concept. Exporters of fine interlinguistic memes: this hits the mark at multiple levels! Sharing the action and grassroots experience across borders. Not only a cooperative, operating within a P2P model for the translation of commons minded publications. GT also gives itself the luxury to pick its topics and battles as activist organization, and diffuse game changing material across languages and cultures on a pro-bono basis. This critical capacity needs to be sustained and expanded to many other languages!”
“It was a privilege to have some of my work taken on by the careful and collaborative translators at GT. The curation effort they put into picking what pieces to make available to wider audiences is equally as conscientious as the care they take with the words and sentences they render on the page. Any writer writes to be read, and GT has recognized that by focusing on translation, their small core team and their volunteer helpers have the potential to reach millions of untapped readers. Language is still one of the hugest barriers impeding access to the thought and information archived on the Open Internet, and I admire the mission of GT to purposefully reduce those barriers, in the interest of the global commons.”
AuthorActivist
“As a project, Guerrilla Translation is paradigmatic. It’s not just about reawakening a taste for the slow and gently cooked word, nor only about avoiding translations that ultimately spoil the transmission. Guerrilla Translation is another example of the transformative potential of radical and empathetic gestures. Each day I am more taken with the new emphasis we use in speaking about caretaking. And if one were to look for a project to explore what is meant by these small acts of political acupuncture, few would be more evocative than this express will to hear, connect and augment the common that sustains and is sustained by language.”
Antonio LafuenteAuthorResearcherMedialab-Prado
“Guerrilla Translation do an impressive job allowing ideas to flow across different cultures and languages. Aside from translating texts, Guerrilla Translation provide a link between the people who are contributing to the solution of social and political problems; their work weaves a network whose nodes feed each other to improve and enhance their work. The fact that one of my articles was translated by Guerrilla Translation from Spanish to English, led me to meet very interesting people working along the same lines, for which I am really grateful.”
Susana Martín BelmonteEconomistMonetary Activist
“Guerrilla Translation is an unsung priceless service to humanity, breaking down language barriers to help tell the most important stories of our time, the story of our own transformation as a species living on a transforming planet. They generously offered a valuable translation of my film “Money & Life” into Spanish which was then made available to the world, thereby making my film accessible to countless others. In addition, GT gives so much heart and time to many other translations, tracking the edge of emergence and packing it all into one great treasure trove of resources on their website.”
“The team behind Guerrilla Translation have impeccable skill in translating content accurately and timely. And yet, their skills are eclipsed by their hearts – driven by their mission to bring important perspectives and ideas to a world desperately in need of them. I highly recommend GT! and their work.”
“With passion, humility and skill, Guerrilla Translation provides an incredibly valuable service that will undoubtedly mobilise many people to strive for a fairer world”
“Guerrilla Translation does much more than translate with guerrilla tactics: they are a compass guiding toward knowledge worth reading, regardless of the language. As a working team, they apply the utmost agility, precision and coherence to the message. The foundation of their living philosophy is networking and networks, the same terrain where they enable free culture to reach more people and places. Goteo and Platoniq are honoured to have them as travel companions, accomplices in our strategies and an example of the type of professional activism that nourishes projects.”
“Guerrilla Translation are changing the landscape of international idea exchange by simply making our cultural boundaries more porous. It’s easy to underestimate the value of new eyes and minds on one’s work, and I have been profoundly influenced by Spanish readers who had been deemed inconsequential by the marketplace. The folks at Guerrilla Translation are themselves a corrective force on not just the publishing industry but also on global culture.”
