[Translator's preface by Sandra Macksoud López]

Abstract

This translation from Spanish to English of a selection of narratives from the book Inventario con retrato de familia by author Efraín Barradas is based of an approach that seeks to foreignize the target text so that the culture of the source text is made evident to the reader. The book consists of twenty-two autobiographical narratives abiut the author's experience while taking charge of his parent's house when they left for a nursing home. The narratives center on objects he finds and the memories these evoke, which he interweaves with scholarly insight. The memories compose typical moments lived by the generation of Puerto Ricans who grew up during the 1940 to 1960. A selection of thirteen narratives were selected for this translation project. In the Translators Preface, the challenges of translating this text are identified, namely terms that have no translation, popular sayings, wordplay, and historic, musical, cultural, and scholarly references.