Complexity in Translation: Controversial Identities in Killer Crónicas

By opening a complex space of cultural difference in specific contexts, and between particular languages and speakers, translation allows us to reflect on identity construction and metamorphosis. It also sheds light on power dynamics between those who engage in translation practices. Susana Chávez-Silverman’s writing can be a good example of translation both as identity construction and metamorphosis, in the context of Latino writing in the U.S. in the 21st century. Through her use of Spanglish, a combination of code-switching and mixed-code, Chávez-Silverman uses controversial translations to challenge the norms of both languages. However, she also challenges the stereotypical identities of both the English- and Spanish-speaking communities in the U.S. That is, her writing resists monolingualism and affirms radical bilingualism: only a competent reader in these two languages and the plurality of cultures involved will be able to fully grasp the entirety of Chávez-Silverman’s work (Torres 2007). Killer Crónicas (2004), in particular, is a collection of 24 chronicles, written in an epistolary manner. In these chronicles, Chávez-Silverman allows us to examine her process of identity construction and metamorphosis by using translation in peculiar way, which I will suggest can be coined as “controversial translation”. In this paper I will analyze 12 of these chronicles as an instance of Chávez-Silverman’s self-reflection in relation to the multiplicity of languages, and cultural identities that she embodies. I hope to illustrate under a different lens that complex identities are forced to go beyond the limits of language therefore requiring translation