The Mexican Association of Literary Translators (Ametli), spoke with Life and Style through its vice president Claudia Cabrera and its president Arturo Vázquez, about the relevance and invisibility of literary translators in Mexico.
“It has been a long struggle, seeking the moral rights of translators, such as the name on the cover, mentions in reviews and the benefits for their work are respected”Cabrera commented.
Literary translators perform a very important task in adapting foreign language material to the majority language of Mexico, however their effort is not relevant for most publishers.
“There are countries like Spain and Germany where literary translators are already given recognition and benefitsIt is a way of asserting what international rights give to our task, ”said Claudia Cabrera.
Although Mexico consumes large amounts of translated literature, the proportion of the market that this represents is not known and that violates the rights of this union, acknowledges Arturo Vázquez.
“We have sought to get closer to FIL, to have a space with Marisol Schulz, director of the fair, to manage spaces for literary translators and promote this task in Mexico, but we have been waiting for answers for several years, ”said Vázquez.
The president of Ametli identifies that Mexican laws already give them these recognitions such as that this work, known as a derivative work and the translator as an author, is not being respected by the publishers and creates disadvantageous practices for its production.
“A contract cannot be established in the assignment of rights for the exploitation of a work on a permanent basis. In Mexico, the possibility of the author assigning his rights or not is canceled, the payment of the translation does not imply the loss of the rights of the work in its entirety”, Details the president of the association of literary translators.
What is sought is a change in the contractual paradigm, inviting editors to review in detail the contracts with the transfer of rights, no more than 7 years
The rights they seek to enforce are: the visibility of their work, the right to appear on the cover of the book and in each case that the translated work is discussed, the translator is mentioned.