Argentine translation conference features Nobel Prizewinning speaker : draws record crowd [Recurso electrónico]

Excited applause greeted Portuguese Nobel prizewinning author José Saramago as he stepped up to the podium to give the keynote speech at the Fourth Latin American Conference on Translation and Interpretation held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on May 1, 2003. Without translators, he told the spillover audience of over 1,400 linguists, writers could never get international recognition. How could a translator association in a country just barely peeking out from under the worst economic crisis in its history get such a distinguished speaker and such a huge turnout? It was no accident. The Colegio de Traductores Públicos de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires [Buenos Aires City Association of Sworn Translators] [CTPCBA] spent two years planning the conference and many months reaching out to prospective speakers and attendees. It paid special attention to students as the next generation of translators and to the media to get coverage of the event-and consequently more exposure for the profession.