Speaking in an Other’s Words: Coloniality, Neo-Babelianism, and Translation in Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s 'The New World Border’

Abstract

In this article I draw from Roman Jakobson’s ‘translation “proper”’, Jacques Derrida’s ‘différance’ and ‘dissémination’, and Homi Bhabha’s ‘cultural translation’ to approach traditional models of translation vis-à-vis questions of coloniality, racialization, and minoritization involved in the construction of Hispanic/Latina/o ethnicity in the United States. Then I look at border writing and, more specifically, at Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s performance piece ‘The New World Border’ in order to discuss translation as a paradigmatic mode of différance (Derrida 1992), ‘newness’ (Bhabha 1994), and unexpected meanings. Finally, I critique the two-side border model of translation to point to a new understanding of translation as speaking in an Other’s words that seeks to rethink the ontological dimension of translation from the border and with-in language.