ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the practices of translation and interpreting that have arisen over time in the Andean countries, to facilitate communication between the Spanish-speaking and Indigenous language-speaking sectors of society. In the colonial period, this activity was driven by the Christianisation mission. In the early Republican period, the emphasis shifted to the concern of Indigenous communities to demand their land rights and a degree of fiscal autonomy. In current times, the focus is on the implementation of language rights legislation, linked to international Indigenous rights conventions, for which Indigenous language translation and interpreting are important vehicles. Today, translation and interpreting are crucial in public service settings such as health care and justice, and in the prior consultation sessions that take place in Indigenous communities when state-sponsored industrialisation activity on Indigenous territory is proposed. A core theme revolves around the inherent power imbalance between the parties, and the potential for cultural and linguistic incommensurability, in the context of Spanish-Indigenous language translation and interpreting.
