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  3. Social Science, Sociology, Ethics, etc.

paracaidista

13:53 Aug 28, 2015
This question was closed without grading. Reason: No acceptable answer

Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - Social Science, Sociology, Ethics, etc.
Spanish term or phrase: paracaidista
This is a text about a Mexican artist who works with social issues.

Estos relatos posibilitan a su vez, identificar y comprender las formas de lucha, como lo fue la organización barrial, a través de las cuales es posible desplazar la discusión de una lógica de sobrevivencia, que atañe la construcción del imaginario de los paracaidistas, a una guiada por la digna lucha por la vida

I assume this is a Mexican usage of "paracaidista" to refer to a temporary and uninformed visitor, but would like to confirm

Thanks
Wendy Gosselin
Argentina
Local time: 04:36


Summary of answers provided
4 +1paratrooper
Luke Mersh
3 +1those who skydive-in to save the day
Marcelo González
4Parashooters
jude dabo
2would-be expert
Muriel Vasconcellos
Summary of reference entries provided
Refs.
Taña Dalglish

Discussion entries: 5





  

Answers


5 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
paratrooper


Explanation:
literal translation

Luke Mersh
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:36
Native speaker of: English

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Francois Boye
1 hr
neutral  Muriel Vasconcellos: It is being used in a metaphoric sense.
7 hrs
neutral  Marcelo González: Wouldn't this need some sort of cultural explanation (perhaps in a translator's note) for the humor to be conveyed here?
11 hrs
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9 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5
would-be expert


Explanation:
I think this would fit the explanation given in the discussion. (I thought of "drop-in expert', but that has a strong association with the Dungeons and Dragons game.)

The Making of an Expert - Harvard Business Review
https://hbr.org/2007/.../the-making-of-an-exper...
Harvard Business Review
Before practice, opportunity, and luck can combine to create expertise, the **would-be expert** needs to demythologize the achievement of top-level performance, ...

Ethics Expertise: History, Contemporary Perspectives, and ...
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1402038208
Lisa Rasmussen - 2006 - ‎Medical
Socrates' famous discussions of substantive moral questions almost invariably occur within the context of an examination of **some would-be expert's bid** for ...

Muriel Vasconcellos
United States
Local time: 00:36
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 305

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Marcelo González: Hi Muriel. I don't know that this conveys the metaphor though, does it? Please see my suggestion and discussion below.
1 hr
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3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +1
those who skydive-in to save the day


Explanation:
I think something like this may be an option.

or perhaps 'skydiver' (with an interesting translator's note) :-)

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 11 hrs (2015-08-29 01:20:36 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

The challenge here resides in being able to convey both the metaphor and the sarcasm-laden humor. I think this does both, as "skydiving-in" evokes images of "rescue," as in the aftermath of disasters, while "to save the day" provides that bit of underlying sarcastic humor present in the original.

I wrote about this very topic of conveying metaphors and humor (including sarcasm), in scholarly political discourse, in my doctoral thesis (see link below), while discussing examples from my translation of Crandall's "Gunboat Democracy" (2006)---examples that included former US president Teddy Roosevelt's quip in relation to his detractors (calling them "a small group of shrill eunuchs") and Ron Dellum's sarcastically witty commentary on the US invasion of Granada, which I include below. In short, we need to include both elements in our translation, i.e., both the metaphor and the humor.

RON DELLUMS ON GRENADA
“I hope that people understand that Grenada was clearly a unique situation. Where could the President of the United States find an island where you could liberate white middle class students, capture some ‘bad blacks,’ beat up some Cubans, humiliate some Soviets, rid the island of communism, and have the majority of black people on the island say, ‘Thank you, Uncle Sam.’ Only on the island of Grenada.” - R. Dellums (Crandall 2006: 158)

...which I rendered as...

“Espero que la gente entienda que en Granada había una situación única. ¿Dónde podía encontrar el presidente de Estados Unidos una isla donde se podía liberar a estudiantes blancos de clase media, capturar a algunos ‘negros malvados’, darles una paliza a algunos cubanos, humillar a algunos soviéticos, eliminar el comunismo de la isla, y lograr que la mayoría de las personas negras en la isla digan, “Gracias, Tío Sam”? Sólo en la isla de Granada”. (Crandall 2011: 201)

--quotes included and discussed in "Metaphor and agency in the English-Spanish translation of texts in the social sciences" (76-80)
http://arrow.monash.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/m...

I hope this helps!

Marcelo González
United States
Local time: 21:36
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 91

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  David Hollywood: bluffers/blowhards
8 hrs
  -> Thanks, David!
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1 day 6 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
Parashooters


Explanation:
my suggestion

jude dabo
Local time: 08:36
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 8
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Reference comments


4 hrs peer agreement (net): +1
Reference: Refs.

Reference information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squatting
Mexico
In Mexico, squatters are known as paracaidistas (that is, "paratroopers", because they "drop" themselves mostly at unoccupied lands), and it is a common practice in large cities. Since the most valuable real property is located near the downtowns of the cities, the paracaidistas usually establish slums at unoccupied lands at the outskirts of the cities. Since Mexican laws establish that an individual may take legal possession of a property after five to twenty years of peaceful occupation, many paracaidistas establish themselves with the hope that the legal owner will not discover them and expel them before five years. Large extensions of many Mexican cities were established originally as squats (for example, Nezahualcoyotl, in Mexico City). Squatting has also been used with political purposes, with more of one political parties promising existing squatters to legalize their situation if they support their candidates in the elections; or sometimes with the purpose to serve as human obstacles for another party, occupying the space that was going to be used for constructing public buildings or parks.

Mexico Reading the United States - Page 107 - Google Books Result
https://books.google.com.jm/books?isbn=0826516408
Linda Egan, ‎Mary K. Long - 2009 - ‎History
... guest list and “the problem of confronting the hordes of Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl,” a ... the city.28 These paracaidistas, or “parachutists,” who appear overnight to squat ... Monsiváis's alienated social classes remain separated and silent, even as ... explicitly make that difference a focus of his series on Mexico's high society, ...

Taña Dalglish
Jamaica
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 16

Peer comments on this reference comment (and responses from the reference poster)
agree  lugoben: I suggest to place an answer out of the reference section.
2 days 1 hr
  -> Thanks lugoben. However, I won't as others have already used "paratroopers", although my feeling is that it is "squatters" (paratroopers in the sense of "dropping themselves on unoccupied land"). But it is the asker's decision. Thx.
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