A scandalous presence in the courtroom: Indigenous immigrant interpreters and the politics of language ideologies in US courts
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Department/School
Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology
Publication Title
PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review
Abstract
This article analyzes how the experiences and observations of Indigenous people from Latin America who work as legal interpreters reveal the ways that the position of court interpreter is racialized. The meaning of the norms of the “invisibility” and “neutrality” of the interpreter and the role of the interpreter as erasing barriers become points of contestation in the context of interpreting Indigenous languages of Latin America, revealing the ways that dominant norms and practices governing interpreting privilege a white speaker. Organizations of Indigenous interpreters articulate these experiences as a language rights issue of a transnational movement and point to the way that institutional claims to neutrality are symptomatic of a larger historical pattern of racism.
Link to Published Version
Recommended Citation
García, M. L. (2024). A scandalous presence in the courtroom: Indigenous immigrant interpreters and the politics of language ideologies in US courts. PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 47(2), 209–222. https://doi.org/10.1111/plar.12576
Comments
M. L. Garcia is a faculty member in EMU's Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology.