Note From the Editors

We want to acknowledge the many people that made this edition possible. Professor Jaime Marroquín Arredondo, from the Modern Languages Department, coordinates a certificate program in Spanish-English translation at Western Oregon  University. The original Spanish version of this book — also published by Western Oregon University and the Instituto de Cultura Oregoniana — provided the students of his two translation classes (SPAN 385: Introduction to Translation and SPAN 486: Translation Practicum) with a unique opportunity to do a professional translation of an academic book. Most of the students in this certificate program are heritage speakers of Spanish, and they were committed to finishing a translation draft of a book that taught about the origins of Hispanic presence in Oregon dating back to the 16th century.

Thanks to Professor Lars Soderlund, from the English Studies department, this first translation draft was revised and edited in the Spring of 2021 by the students of his advanced writing class, WR 402 Professional Editing. They also made the book more attractive and easier to navigate by adding headings, revising sentences, and creating a stylesheet to promote consistency of vocabulary, grammar, and syntax.

During the Fall of 2022, Professor Marroquín’s students did further editing and proofreading of the book translation. Yet another round of proofreading was made by senior student Sonali Salgado during an independent course on Spanish to English translation. English professor and poet, Henry Hughes, conducted a further proofreading of the manuscript and WOU faculty librarian, Sue Kunda, reviewed all editorial work, imported the manuscript into Pressbooks (our online publishing platform), and edited the content for electronic and print delivery. Mark Lane, the production manager at Oregon State University’s Open Educational Resources Unit, volunteered to help export the English and Spanish versions from Pressbooks in a format ready for print production.

We hope that the generous and ecumenic spirit that accompanied the writing, translation and publishing of Hispanic Origins of Oregon helps to promote a multicultural history and a bilingual society in the Pacific Northwest. As Sonali Salgado made us aware, for Oregon students, especially immigrant and minority ones, learning about the historic origins of Latinos in Oregon, a place they have called home for all, or most of their lives, is of great importance. This is particularly true since this history was not available in schools or even in history books, despite the fact that Oregon has a very diverse population and Hispanics or Latinos are by far its largest minority. It is well-known that these Spanish-speaking people came from Mexico to work in the agricultural and railroad industries, yet many of them were  not educated nor helped to understand how events in the colonial past correlated to the present. Being able to understand the origins of this territory helps us have a clearer sense of Oregon’s traditions, languages and beliefs, including the origin of the Hispanic names of different sites throughout our lovely state and the Pacific Northwest. We believe we should commemorate all those who sailed, lived in, and explored these territories, during a time period that has been almost ignored for centuries.

Jaime Marroquin Arredondo, Sue Kunda, Sonali Salgado, and Lars Soderlund