Puerto Rican Poets in Chicago

This chapter focuses on Chicago Rican poetry. From the beginning, Chicago Puerto Rican poets were to speak of Latin or Latino identity, and Latin or Latino poetry. Indeed, they, more than their Mexicano counterparts, tended to decenter or go beyond national identifications to Latino and third world/minority ones even to the degree that they affirmed their particular parameters of identity. Thus, the question of Latino as opposed to strictly Puerto Rican identity is one of the major contributions of Chicago Puerto Rican writers to an overall national Latino literary scene. The chapter then provides an overview of Chicago Puerto Rican writing and examines the first consolidated wave of Chicago Puerto Rican poetry.

Uses of the Imagination: Bilanguaging the Translation of U.S. Latino Poets

The translation of multicultural poetry is as challenging as it is creative. In this verse, meaning is transmitted through a defiance of norms, firstly because poetry is a genre that strives for verbal concision and innovation; and secondly because the multilingual poet involves another language —either in its original form or as a translation into the language of composition—to enhance sound and cultural imagery. In order to translate this type of poetry, it is necessary to analyze traditional translations of multicultural literature to establish what the reader’s expectations are, if any, regarding this writing technique. Also, as implicit translations embedded within the lines create a tangible heteroglossia, this element must be considered and conveyed as such in the new version. In this study, the ideas on polylingualism in literature discussed by Mikhail Bakhtin, Meir Steinberger, Walter Mignolo, and Paul Bandia are first weighed, and then an examination of the actual Spanish versions of U.S. Latino poetry published in Usos de la imaginación: poesía de l@s latin@s en EE.UU helps crystallize the problems and strategies involved in the translation of multicultural literature. La traducción de la poesía multicultural es una tarea tan desafiante como creativa. En esta lírica, se transmite el sentido a través de un cuestionamiento de las normas, primero porque la poesía es un género que busca la concisión verbal y la innovación; segundo porque el poeta multicultural involucra otra lengua—en su forma original o como traducción a la lengua de composición—para enriquecer las imágenes sonoras y culturales. Para traducir este tipo de poesía, es necesario investigar modos tradicionales de traducir la literatura multicultural para así establecer cuáles son, si existen, las expectativas de lectura. También, ya que las traducciones implícitas crean una heteroglosia tangible, hay que considerar este factor y transmitirlo en la nueva versión. En este estudio, se examina las ideas sobre el uso de polilingüismo en la literatura expuestas por Mikhail Bakhtin, Meir Steinberger, Walter Mignolo y Paul Bandi, y luego se analizan las traducciones al castellano de poesía latina realizadas para el libro Usos de la imaginación: poesía de l@s latin@s en EE.UU para llegar a una cristalización de los problemas y posibles soluciones para la traducción de la literatura multicultural.