The interpreter-principal relationship: clues in a colonial chronicle for the history of interpretation

Abstract

In recent years, the field of Interpretation Studies has experienced a consid-erable growth. Nevertheless, the history of interpretation is still a marginal area. In addition, in spite of its ubiquitous presence during the Conquest and Colonization, Hispanic American historiography has given interpreters a relatively scarce attention.Because  of  the  apparent  absence  or  poorness  of  historical  registers  of situations where interpreters were involved their study and the construc-tion of conceptual frames that may help us to understand and explain the functioning of historical oral mediation has been made difficult. Nevertheless, a careful analysis of colonial sources can give us clues to this understanding. In this paper, based on the reading of colonial chronicles, in particular Alonso González de Nájera’s Desengaño y reparo de la Guerra de Chile, we present a tentative framework for one of its least well known aspects: the relationship between the interpreters and their principals.We believe that this proposal may help fill in some of the gaps in the field of Interpretation Studies as well as in Colonial historiography itself.