Translator's preface by María Luisa Fuster Zalduondo

Abstract

A translation from Spanish into English of sections of the second part of the book Los derechos fundamentales y deberes cívicos de las personas (The Fundamental Rights and Civic Duties of the People), titled "Los deberes cívicos de las personas" ("The Civic Duties of the People") by attorney and jurist Jaime B. Fuster Berlingeri. The book is a primer for ordinary citizens without any training or background in the legal system of Puerto Rico. Its principal purpose is to educate the reader on their fundamental rights as citizens in Puerto Rico and their obligations and duties as members of this society. This study aims to present a coherent translation of the chapters on civic duties. It also addresses the challenges the translator faced when attempting to maintain the author’s voice in the target text. Many of the translation problems pertain to differences between the Spanish and English languages dealing with sentence structure, the use of the passive voice in legal texts, idiomatic expressions, and the use of certain words to convey specific concepts related to the topic being discussed.