Colombia. History of translation

Translation and interpreting have been a part of the Colombian cultural and political spheres from much longer before what we now know as the Republic of Colombia ever existed. In this article, we will present an overview of the most relevant events, practices, and agents throughout the history of translation in this Latin American country. Tracing the history of translation in Colombia requires work along different lines, which may give an account of both translational practice itself and of those who have documented this practice, from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives. Our first line of work, then, will involve historical work, entailing the documentation of practices of translation and interpreting in the national territory. A second line of work, from a historiographical perspective, will offer an account of the work presented by scholars at different points in time to document or study Colombian translations. Our third line of work is historical-discursive in nature, and will present the discourses that have taken translation as their object, particularly as it has an impact on the social, cultural, political, scientific, and literary spheres of Colombian life. Finally, we will present academic works that approach translation from the perspective of contemporary translation studies, a line of work that we have termed translatological. By offering this overview, we intend to present the state of the art of translation history and historiography in Colombia. It is our ultimate purpose to provide an assessment of the practices and discourses surrounding translation so as to determine the various functions that this activity has had in the different spheres of Colombian culture.