Maricarmen Torres Medina

Hometown

Bayamón, Puerto Rico

Education

M.A. Translation, University of Puerto Rico / B.A. Foreign Languages, University of Puerto Rico

Interests

Languages and translation, public policy, city and housing, poverty, community development and visual and cultural representation

Experience

I was born and raised on the main island of Puerto Rico. For the last nine years, I have been focusing and strengthening my professional profile, drawing from experiences in three main working settings: the public sector, private sector and NGOs.

I began working with Public Housing and their communities in Puerto Rico, followed up by collaborating as a language instructor at a local community college. Most recently, I lead a group of professionals in a NGO that aided survivors from hurricanes Irma and María through case management and economic support. Each of these experiences highlighted fundamental aspects about Puerto Rican society such as: inequality, lack of access to essential services and funding, race and class conflict, feuds between public and federal policies, the colonial effects of disasters, among others.

Learning new ways to approach and understand others have always interested me. My B.A. in Foreign Languages broadened my cultural context, and also my time as a graduate student in the M.A. Translation Program. As the culminating project of my graduate degree I had the opportunity of writing a translator’s preface and to translate (from English to Spanish) some chapters of an ethnographic text about the experience of the “other”, the city, community politics and public housing in modern Puerto Rico. This comprehensive experience of translation enriched my professional work at the time. It also awakened my interests regarding how a text, an image, or even space, function as tools that, build narrative, represent a historical event or partake in the sharing of a community experience.

As an incoming student at MALAS, I look forward in fostering my academic and intellectual interests and developing as a future scholar.