Translating in the Margins: Attending to Glossaries in Latina/o Literature

While literary scholars have frequently and fruitfully explored the politics of linguistic identity as they play out in the lives of Latina/o authors, their books, and their characters, the paratextual glossary has often been overlooked as simply a tool meant to accommodate monolingual, English-speaking audiences. But in a number of contemporary Latina/o narratives, including most particularly Ernesto Galarza’s 1971 autobiographical novel Barrio Boy, those glossaries both offer and undermine the illusion of linguistic stability, materially engaging readers in the process of transculturation. Rather than easing translation for monolingual readers, these glossaries force readers to reflect on the process and politics of translation itself.