This is me! English to Spanish Translation is My Passion

My name is Luis and I’m from Bolivia. Yes, the current socialist country in South America being run by a Dictator. Sounds horrible, right? But it’s not that bad. I mean it could be better, I would like another President with a more liberal political view, but at least my family and I have a good life.

I’m a freelance translator so I can pretty much work from anywhere. I do have an office uptown at my family’s law firm and working there is awesome because I get really concentrated and do much of my daily work there. However, I can work at home, at my kid´s soccer practice sitting on a bench, or while my daughter is in swimming lessons. I just need my laptop and that’s it. Many times I even worked from my car and while on vacation in another country.

When I was a child I never really wanted to be a translator, I mean, that wasn’t my ultimate goal in life at the time; I had other passions and hobbies. I studied in the great American Cooperative School in La Paz, Bolivia – Colegio “Calvert” - the best school in my city (we alumni like to say that). It’s the only school in the city sponsored by the United States Government. It’s the American School, fully in English.

After high school I went to the States to King’s College (www.kings.edu) in the great city of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, pursuing a degree in International Business. I always felt that the future for me was going to be working in a multinational company in Bolivia, so International Business was a good fit. I had a great time at King’s. The full U.S. College experience.

When I graduated I took the first plane back to Bolivia and got a job as a Supervisor for the newly opened Franchise of Domino’s Pizza. This was an awesome job! The company sent me to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to complete a one-month course about the Franchise. I learned how to manage a pizza store, handle personnel and even to make the classic Domino’s Pizza. When I returned to La Paz I worked at Domino’s for three years. We opened four stores in two cities and had much success, for a while. Sadly the market wasn’t ready for an international pizza franchise offering high prices when the market already had good pizzas for much less. Domino’s, as well as other franchises like McDonald’s, ended up closing.

It was back to the drawing board for me. I really couldn’t find another job. Here’s when a good friend suggested that I should go to Law School. Since my family (father and sister) already had a successful law firm, maybe a good idea was to become a lawyer. I searched the web and saw that my prior degree in International Business was going to be a great complement for my new career in law. Here’s when I decided to enroll in the great Universidad Privada Boliviana (www.upb.edu). Would you believe that after four years in Law School I graduated Magna Cum Laude! I wasn’t the best in the class but I was among the top 5. Wow, law career here I come! The future is bright! However, one thing happened while I was on my second year of law school that changed my life forever.

One day I was at home watching TV and my sister (who worked at my family’s law firm) calls and asks me if I could translate a document for one of her clients. I was 26 years old and had never translated a full document before. I didn’t really accept at the moment but she offered me a great pay, hard to refuse. The document was a purchase and sale contract for a house. I had been in law school for like two years already so I was getting pretty much into legal terminology, so the translation project did not seem like a problem. I accepted the job! It was like a six page contract that I finished the next day and sent it back to my sister. After a few hours she calls back and tells me that her client thought the translation was great. She goes, can you do another one? I accepted.

After a month or so, in which I worked on like three more short translations, my sister tells me that I should go and test to be included in the United States Embassy’s List of Recommended Translators for American Citizens and the general public. I signed up and ended up passing the test with a high grade and received a letter of acceptance to be included in the most prestigious list of recommended translators in my country. I still wasn’t sure about being a full-time translator, hadn’t even considered it to tell you the truth. I just continued with my law school studies and translating on the side for extra cash. Apparently my background in International Business, my new Law Studies, and my knowledge of the English language were complementing each other and resulting in good acceptable translations. The local translation jobs kept coming.

When I graduated law school with honors, I went straight to my family’s law firm that already had an office waiting for me. I tried the law thing for a while, I really did, but the demand for translations kept coming. During this time I got married to my beautiful wife Claudia. She rocks! We have a great family with two children now (2 and 4 years old). Work at the office took the following structure: my dad and sister would handle the cases and I would handle the legal translations. Two years passed and now I was working not only for my own family’s law firm, but also for other lawyers around town. I had to sign many non-disclosure agreements. I even translated stuff for the Government of Bolivia. I was becoming a full-time translator.

Since then, the legal work I do is minimal. I’m all in with Translation. After a few years I started getting jobs from International Clients also. It’s been more than eight years now that I’ve been working for TransPerfect, the leading Translation and Localization Company in the world, as an independent contractor. I’ve had clients from the USA, the United Kingdom, Australia, China, Sweden, Peru, Argentina, Mexico and many others. I’ve recently also started translating for a company in Poland that runs a blog about Blockchain technology and Cryptocurrencies. They pay me in Bitcoin or Litecoin for translation work!

In 2017, always thinking that it was necessary to validate my profession with formal training in Translation, I enrolled in the English to Spanish Legal, Business and Medical Translation Program at University of Arizona. I finished the program after 10 months and got the highest grade of the class. I was finally being validated as a translator by teachers of a major academic institution. I finally got the confidence to say that I was a Professional Certified English to Spanish Translator.

Professionally, it has been a bumpy ride for me. Not knowing what to be or where to end up; however, I ended up with my passion and every time I work I’m happy. I’m an English to Spanish translator; I also do Spanish to English but most of my jobs relate to the former pair. I just wanted to introduce myself to the Steem community with this post and hope that I will get inspired with more posts to teach and share my experiences with future aspiring translation professionals.

Cheers to all!

Luis F. Valle