Canadian Cultural Exchange / Échanges culturels au Canada: Translation and Transculturation / traduction et transculturation

Latin-Americanizing Canada

josé antonio giménez micó Latin-Americanizing Canada Culture is never just a matter of ownership, of borrowing and lending with absolute debtors and creditors, but rather of appropriations , common experiences, and interdependencies of all kinds. (Edward Said, Culture 217) This chapter explores the current Latin-Americanization of Canada: that is, the process of transculturation that occurs through the inclusion of Latin American identities into Canadian culture , and the consequent transformation of the latter. In order to do so, I will examine one of the most conspicuous manifestations of this incorporation: the writings of Latin American exiles who have settled in Canada and contributed to the reshaping of a Canadian identity that is more aware of its own diversity. This active incorporation is far from being easy, since it requires that the exiles overcome both their past trauma and present subaltern condition. I use the phrase “active incorporation” in order to avoid terms such as “integration” and “assimilation,” both of which may imply a higher, if not absolute, level of passivity on the part of the subaltern. Until recently, it was thought that the only path for a newcomer was simply to assimilate the values , languages, and cultures of the adopted country—which would imply that these languages, cultures, and values were there, immovable and immune to social transformations. Canada’s official policy (or should I say rhetoric?) of multiculturalism includes the preservation of the culture of origin within this integration; thus the identity of the “new Canadian” is not selective and 59 04_cheadle_mico.qxd 2007/06/21 13:30 PM Page 59 exclusive, but rather cumulative and inclusive. If we look at this idea of multiculturalism in terms of linguistics, we can see that bi- or multilingualism is what is valued: French and/or English plus the language(s) of the newcomer. In sociolinguistic terms, what is thus produced is the phenomenon of diglossia (Ferguson), in which the language of origin tends to be restricted to orality and the spheres of the private (family) or semi-private (community groups), while writing in languages other than English and French is confined to more or less marginal publications. This article is an example; originally written in Spanish, it had to be translated into English for publication, in order to reach to a wider audience. Diglossia and translation into the hegemonic language are linguistic symptoms of a larger cultural phenomenon: the constantly and necessarily conflictive dialogue between hegemonic and secondary cultures. Even when the mainstream is particularly receptive to minorities, as is the case in Canada, it tends to neutralize any element it sees as“different,”not necessarily by excluding or ignoring it, but often by absorbing, diluting, or giving it a folksy character : that is,“appropriating” it in the common, in this term’s negative sense of “pillaging.”Let us keep in mind,however,that“appropriation,”in hermeneutical terms, is not only positive but necessary: appropriation is the very condition of possibility of culture, any culture (Said, Culture 217).As will become clear in my conclusion, it is this meaning of “appropriation” that is central to this article. Latin American writers, like other exiles and refugees who settle in Canada, undoubtedly go through an extremely painful and difficult process of adaptation and appropriation in their new country, and this theme is manifest in their writings. That is why, instead of considering their writings as the peripheral and more or less nostalgic work of a group of exiles who are incapable of being “fully” incorporated into its adopted country—as is often more or less explicitly thematized in the literature—I look at them as symbols, symptoms, or agents of the transformation of the mainstream. The literary work of Latin American exiles indeed constitutes a means of sharing the experience of trauma with their Canadian readers, thus reshaping and broadening Canadian identity. In this article, I will discuss El exilio y las ruinas (2002) by Chilean Canadian poet and academic Luis Torres, in light of the questions addressed in this book; in addition, I will refer to the novels of Bolivian Canadian Alejandro Saravia, which also relate to the theme of exile. I would like to begin, however, by discussing the notions of translation and transculturation and identifying their uncertain and problematic meanings. 60 Cultural Appropriation Revisited / L’Appropriation culturelle reconsidérée 04_cheadle_mico.qxd 2007/06/21 13:30 PM Page 60 Translation and Transculturation: Preliminary Observations Les migrations...