In Praise of Bad Spanish: Manuel García de Sena's Thomas Paine

Rodrigo Lazo, “In Praise of Bad Spanish: Manuel García de Sena’s Thomas Paine” This paper takes up the ideology of correct language usage in the context of a highly politicized scene of political translation. The first... [ view full abstract ]

Rodrigo Lazo, “In Praise of Bad Spanish: Manuel García de Sena’s Thomas Paine”

This paper takes up the ideology of correct language usage in the context of a highly politicized scene of political translation. The first known published translation of Thomas Paine’s works into Spanish appeared in Filadelfia as La independencia de la costa firme justificada por Thomas Paine treinta años há (1811) (The independence of the Spanish Main justified by Thomas Paine thirty years ago). This book deployed Paine’s work and other US Revolution-era documents and sent them to Venezuela in support of independence movements there. In the paratextual material, Sena implored readers to ignore the style of his translation and focus on the principles in the documents. Sena’s point, I will show, was an attempt to head off critiques from supporters of the Spanish monarchy who would have taken issue with his style or accuse him of using what I call “bad Spanish.” The paper will argue that Sena’s position on language was not only important to independence movements but also relevant to debates over language ideology today: a willingness to cross languages despite stylistic or grammatical failures is important to the politics of sharing progressive principles.