Barbara’s Story
After transferring in my junior year from Connecticut, I graduated from the University of Puerto with a B.A. in French and a Master’s Degree in English Literature and another in Translation. But my first love has always been interpretation; so I packed up and enrolled in the Conference Interpretation Graduate Program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) in Monterey, California.
Upon graduation with a degree in conference interpretation (French, Spanish and English), I went to Morocco to brush up on my French before venturing off to Belgium and Paris. When I returned to Puerto Rico, Myrsa Landrón and Carmen Díaz, the founders of Atabex asked me to join as the interpreter to complement their translation skills.
A year later I was invited to join the staff of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the UN specialized agency for agriculture, as their in-house interpreter. My one-year contract soon turned into eight years, during which I coordinated all of the ministerial meetings, setting up four-language booths as well as staffing for all technical meetings.
In 1996, I left IICA to go to Brazil and improve my Portuguese. From there I moved to Miami, where I soon joined the staff of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). The plan was to draft a trade agreement for all of North, South and Central America as well as the Caribbean. The FTAA remained in Miami for 2 years and then moved on to Panama, where I served as the head interpreter, coordinating 12 interpreters to cover all meetings. Two years later, the FTAA moved to Puebla, Mexico where, after four years, the negotiations came to a standstill. Little by little, we all returned to our countries of origin and I moved to California, where I now work as a freelance translator (still through Atabex) and a certified federal and state interpreter for superior and federal court cases, as well as for depositions.
My favorite quote
– I complained because I had no shoe until I met a man who had no feet
– I bet you never knew that the biggest pyramids are not in Egypt but in Cholula, Mexico
In Barbara’s own words
I have lived around the world and travelled through Latin America. A little known fact about me is that I met my wonderful husband on the Internet.
Barbara’s Interests
Swimming
Reading
Travel